The Adventures of Angelina Johnson
by Ellabee15
Summary: An overview of Angelina's years at Hogwarts.
1. First Year

Angelina had wanted to come to Hogwarts her whole life. Nervously she kissed her mother and father goodbye. They were both arguing amiably about what house she would be in. Her mother was pulling for Gryffindor while her father insisted that his clever daughter could not be in any other house besides his own Ravenclaw. She smiled and waved, getting on the Express. Dragging her trunk and owl cage through the corridors she was looking for an empty compartment when she was almost knocked over by a pair of red headed twins who were running away from another tall red head with horned rimmed glasses.

"Fred and George, stop at once."

"At once?" The furthest twin asked, turning to glare at the tall boy.

"Who talks like that?" The second one agreed. He knelt down and helped Angelina to her feet. "Hi, I'm George." He said, "Sorry, it's Percy's fault." He motioned toward the boy with glasses.

"What gives you the authority to yell at us anyways?" The other twin demanded, glaring at Percy.

"I'm your brother, Fred." Percy replied.

"Oh yeah?" Fred challenged.

"Where's the proof?" George said. Percy sighed. Angelina grabbed her trunk and owl cage and opened the nearest compartment door. A girl was already sitting there and Angelina smiled.

"Do you mind?" She said. "They're probably going to be blocking the corridor for a while." Behind her one of the twins, it was probably Fred, had just implied that Percy might have been half shrew.

"You do realize you just called your mother a shrew?" Percy growled.

"How DARE you?" was it George? replied, throwing his hands up to his mouth in mock horror.

"That is our mother you're speaking of." Fred sounded horrified.

The girl looked at the boys and rolled her eyes. "Sure." She smiled. "I'm Alicia, Alicia Spinnet."

"Angelina Johnson." Angelina said, shutting the door behind her. She looked at the magazine Alicia was reading. "Is that the catalog for Quality Quidditch Supplies?" She asked.

"Yes." Alicia said, defensively. "I was...I was looking at the brooms." She sighed. "I guess it's silly; first years aren't allowed brooms...or to play on the quidditch team."

Angelina grinned. "Well, then we'll have to practice extra in our flying lessons so we're good enough to make it second year."

The voices outside got louder. Alicia frowned. "What the bloody hell are they all doing out there?" She asked, turning to glare at the boys

"They're brothers." Angelina shrugged. "I just hope they didn't scare Nike." She motioned to her owl. Alicia looked at the small yellow owl and smiled.

"She's beautiful." She said. "My parents didn't get me an owl. My dad thought it would attract too much attention in my neighbor hood." She flushed, looking back at the catalog.

"You live with muggles?" Angelina was fascinated. She knew why Alicia seemed nervous; many wizards chose to live in neighborhoods with other large wizarding populations or hid their houses with magic. Alicia's brown skin was flecked with red as she nodded.

"My...my dad is one." She explained. "My mum met him while traveling in Mali; she's a historian and she fell in love. His family used to be...well they were medicine men. She was trying to establish a connection between muggleborns and mixed magical families. He's a biologist. They're working to prove that magic is a genetic mutation." She put her catalog down, her chin held high. As a halfblood, she'd probably had to deal with antimuggle prejudice from wizards and racism from Muggles. "That way people will stop saying that either one is better than the other or that we're a different species."

Angelina nodded. "Sounds cool. I never really understood science, but it's amazing what muggles have done without magic. Do you have a TV?"

Alicia blinked. "...What?" She asked, slowly.

"A TV." Angelina prompted. "I snuck out to a muggle movie once, last year. It was called "The Princess Bride." They got a lot about magic wrong, but it was funny."

"I saw that one too!" Alicia grinned.

The argument outside got louder.

"Put those wands away at once." Percy shouted. "You don't know any magic."

"Doesn't seem too hard." Fred replied. The twins had their wands out and were both facing their brother. Angelina rolled her eyes and stood, knocking on the window.

"Are you done with your little measuring contest?" She asked, when they turned their attention to her. "Because we are not impressed." She crossed her arms and stared down the three boys. They looked down at the ground in shame.

"Terribly sorry, ma'am." Percy said.

"Ma'am?" Alicia said in disgust. "Does she look like a forty three year old mother of two to you?"

"Sorry-" Percy said.

"Quit while you're ahead." Angelina said, cutting him off. He turned as red as his hair and turned, putting his nose in the air and walked away. The twins watched him in surprise, then slowly turned to stare at the two girls.

"Marry us." Fred said. "Immediately."

"We've never seen anything like that before." George said.

Angelina scoffed. "In your dreams." She pulled the shades down on their faces and locked the compartment door.

* * *

"Johnson, Angelina."

Professor Mcgonagall called her name. Angelina was shaking, but she kept her chin up,

"Good luck." Alicia whispered. Angelina gave her a smile, hoping she looked more confident than she felt and slowly walked up to the hat.

"Hope you get Gryffindor." George whispered. She raised an eyebrow, and he ducked his head in embarrassment. His twin nodded his agreement. Angelina made her way to the stool and sat on it, gripping it tight. She felt the smoothed edges and wondered how many hundreds of students had sat in the same chair she was, doing the exact same thing. She gulped as the fabric covered her face. She wished she hadn't thought of that number. Now she couldn't erase the thought of their sweaty brows touching the inside of the hat. Did they ever wash it? Gross.

"I'm a magical hat I'll have you know." The hat's voice said in her ear. She'd been expecting it, but she still had to fight not to jump. "A brave one, I see. Well Ms. Johnson, I see that you are clever as well. You've got quite a sharp mind, but I also see bravery...and a strong sense of justice...Hmmmmmm GRYFFINDOR." The word rang out shaking the windows, and vibrating down in her bones. The hat was pulled off her head and she blinked, looking around the hall at the glittering plates and cheering students. The loudest group was the table at center right. The people were shouting and banging their cups, utensils, and plates on the table. She smiled and walked over to them.

"Welcome, Ms. Johnson." Percy said, moving to make more room.

"Is this the girl from the train, Perce?" Another red headed boy said, holding out his hand. "Charlie Weasley; thank you for thoroughly terrifying my little brothers." He grinned. "I have never seen the twins more in love." He jerked his head towards his two brothers. "They'll be coming along soon."

"How do you know?" Angelina asked.

"Everyone in our family's in Gryffindor." Another red headed boy said. "Bill Weasley."

"Spinnet Alicia." Professor Mcgonagall said. Angelina turned to watch her new friend take the stool. Whatever the hat decided, she didn't care; Alicia was nice and it wouldn't matter to her. She watched as Alicia squirmed slightly, but finally the hat shouted; "GRYFFINDOR."

Alicia's face emerged from under the brim of the hat and she grinned toward the table, slipping in the seat next to her.

"My mum was a Hufflepuff." She admitted. "The hat almost put me there."

"You'd look good in yellow." Angelina said. "It almost considered putting me in Ravenclaw."

"Blue's a nice color too." Alicia said, thoughtfully. The two girls grinned at each other.

"Weasley, Fred." Mcgonagall said. Angelina frowned as one of the twins climbed the stairs to the hat.

"Isn't that-?" She turned to the other Weasley brothers. Bill had his mouth covered in amusement. Charlie was shaking his head, patting Percy's back as he turned an interesting shade of puce. She'd been right. It wasn't Fred, it was George. The hat barely touched his head before it shouted:

"GEORGE Weasley is in GRYFFINDOR."

Mcgonagall raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips as she held up the hat. George sauntered the Gryffindor table, high fiving his twin on the way down. The other Gryffindors were losing their minds, hooting and jumping out of their seats. Mcgonagall closed her eyes and let out a long suffering sigh.

"Fred Weasley. For real this time." She said.

Fred walked up and shot her a dazzling smile, before waiting patiently for the hat. Predictably it shouted Gryffindor. He sat next to his twin, conveniently across from Alicia and Angelina.

* * *

"That flying lesson was soooo-" Alicia gushed, waving her hands, trying to find the right words. Her face was flushed and she was bouncing with excitement.

"Boring." Angelina finished, looking longingly at the sky.

"Well, excuse me Ms. I Grew up in a Wizard Community so I learned how to fly before I was potty trained." Alicia retorted.

"They won't let us do anything real." Angelina sighed. "I meant call the broom up and hover? How long does that really take to learn?"

"Well Marcus Flint seemed to have a hard time of it." Alicia said. The two girls giggled, remembering their Slytherin classmate's face plant into the dirt.

"He slid right off." Angelina said, walking up the stairs, imitating Flint's expression as he fell.

"Helloooo Johnson, Spinnet."

The two girls groaned and turned to glare at the twins.

"What do you want Things one and two?" Alicia said.

"Just wanted to see what the prettiest girls in Gryffindor were doing on this fine morning." Fred said,pushing himself between them and throwing an arm around their shoulders.

"Our ears detected the sound of insults being thrown towards a certain Slytherin." George said, coming to stand next to Angelina. "We couldn't help but be intrigued." He waved over at Marcus. "Hiya, Flint. Ogle away, I know I'm gorgeous." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Shut up, Weasley." Flint said. "You couldn't afford looks if they were free and on sale." The other Slytherins laughed.

Fred and George both flinched. Angelina glared at Flint. He hesitated slightly before turning and laughing with his friends.

"So, you seemed like a natural on that broom, Johnson." George said. "You thinking of trying for the quidditch team next year?"

Angelina was about to come up with a snappy retort, but she realized that George was actually complimenting her; and that he probably wanted something to distract him from Flint's insults against his family. It was common knowledge that the Weasleys were very poor. Flint's insult had been a low blow.

"Yeah." She said, giving him a small smile. Relief and gratitude crossed George's face.

"Georgie and I are thinking of trying as well." Fred said. "The beaters are leaving at the end of this term."

"I hear that that 3rd year might be made Captain next year." Alicia said. "Oliver, something."

"Oliver Wood." The twins said in unison.

"Don't pretend you didn't know who he was." Fred shook his head. "All the girls think he's handsome."

"He's a keeper." Angelina said. She and Alicia laughed as the twins groaned in revulsion.

* * *

"Angelina." Alicia hissed, tripping over her slippers. "We're going to get caught."

"Why the hell did you wear those stupid slippers?" Angelina whispered back, pushing open the portrait hole. "I know we're sneaking out in our pajamas, but there is such a thing as too much commitment." She shook her head.

"Filch might catch us." Alicia said, following her out of the portrait hole.

"That's stating the obvious." Angelina remarked.

They stole down the stairs, making their way towards the entrance hall. "Ghost." Angelina threw her hand out and tugged Alicia behind a tapestry. They fell, tumbling to the ground.

"Bloody hell." Alicia coughed, getting up and dusting herself off before holding out a hand to pull Angelina to her feet. "Did you know this tunnel was back here?"

"No" Angelina said, looking around. Alicia stuck her head out and groaned.

"It's the Fat Friar and he's trying to engage the grey lady in conversation." She rolled her eyes, letting the tapestry fall back in place. "The Friar's liable to alert Mcgonagall because punishment will "build character" or some Hufflepuff responsibility crock." She leaned against the wall and slid down. "We're stuck here."

"We might not be." Angelina grinned. "This passage goes down, in the direction we were headed."

Alicia grinned. "Let's go."

* * *

Breaking open the equipment locker was surprisingly easy. "Convenient that Professor Flitwick taught us Alohamora, right Angelina?" Alicia asked, grabbing one of the cleansweeps and tossing a second one to Angelina.

They stepped out onto the Quidditch field. Alicia pulled a beach ball out of her pocket and inflated it. She'd asked her parents to send it to her and it had arrived that morning, much to her and Angelina's delight. They'd been planning this for ages and finally their plans had payed off.

"Announcing Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Gryffindor's most notorious chasers." Alicia said, holding her arms open to the stands.

"And the crowd loses their minds as they score yet another goal." Angelina said, imitating an announcer's voice.

"Who needs Seekers when you've got these girls on your team." Alicia said, they grinned.

"Last one to the goal post's a pile of toadstools." Angelina said, grabbing the beach ball and kicking off. The night air was cool and she felt the wind whip through her hair, one of her many braids escaping from her hair tie. There was a loud smacking noise and the beach ball was flying out of her hand. Alicia was diving underneath to catch it. Angelina urged her broom downward in an attempt to catch up with her, Alicia grabbed the ball and swung around, flying straight for the goal posts. She scored, Angelina dove for the ball and caught it.

"Too slow, Johnson." Alicia taunted.

"Right." Angelina smirked. "Let's see how you do the second time around."

The girls played for two hours; well past midnight. They locked the equipment and walked up to the castle. Both of them were wired, and excited. Neither of them noticed the cat with the strange markings around its eyes that watched them go back up. It had been watching them for the entire game. Waiting until they got to the Castle before slinking back towards the Castle.

* * *

They were yawning, their heads practically in their porridge bowls. That was a testament to how tired she was, Angelina thought. She hated porridge. She poked it and frowned as it oozed around her spoon.

"You don't eat porridge." George said, sitting across from her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." She smiled. "Where's your shadow?" She asked.

"Fred's got some business to attend to." George said.

"Business?" Alicia groaned, lifting her head.

"Sleeping Beauty, and you woke without a kiss." George smiled.

"You can't have business, you're eleven." Alicia said.

"You're eleven." George retorted.

"And so am I." Angelina said, yawning. "What have we got first?" She asked.

"Transfiguration." George said. "Thanks for lending me your notes, by the way."

Angelina nodded. There was a sudden commotion at the Slytherin table.

"What you got there, Weasel?"

Angelina looked over. Flint and his friends were standing around in a semicircle in front of Fred. Fred was holding some type of smoking vial of liquid, it was glowing slightly.

"Weasel?" Fred asked. "At least try for some originality."

"What's he doing?" Alicia asked George. The other twin smiled and put a finger to his lips, before standing; clearly planning on joining his brother. Angelina grabbed his arm.

"You'll get in trouble." She whispered, glancing nervously at the staff table. They were ignoring the confrontation, but she could already see that Snape's eyes flickering to the Slytherin table.

George grinned. "I am trouble."

"I'm terribly sorry." A voice said loudly. "But you should know better than to run into people with potions." Flint was sputtering; his entire front soaked with whatever Fred had been carrying and his robes turning a bright canary yellow.

"Snape's coming." Angelina warned, suddenly alert.

"Johnson, sit down." Lorraine, a blonde girl in her year said, tugging at her arm. "There's nothing you can-"

"Hey Flint." Angelina said walking over to Fred; she didn't have a plan, but she couldn't let Flint and his much bigger Slytherin friends pummel him. "Pick on someone your own size." George's eyes widened as he turned and looked at her.

Flint tilted his head, grinning at her. "Well well well, it's the girlfriend. Tell, me Johnson, is it because the Weasleys are so poor that you need two of them?" George made a lunge for Flint, but Angelina grabbed him and held him back.

"Don't do anything stupid." She hissed, holding on to George as he struggled.

"Brawling in the dining hall are we?" Snape had arrived. "Miss Johnson. Misters Weasley, 5 points each from Gryffindor and you will go to your head of house after breakfast so she might assign you further punishment."

"So Flint and his goons get nothing?" Alicia shouted, standing up from the Gyrffindor table, outrage on her face.

"5 points from Gryffindor for your impertinence as well, Miss Spinnet." Snape said. "You may go."

They all left the hall together, walking to professor McGonagall's office. Alicia was nervous; she'd never gotten detention before. Angelina kept her head up and her eyes in front of her. Waiting until they were walking up the stairs, she hit Fred on the back of the head.

"What were you thinking?" She said. They were in the middle of one of the stairs, Fred stepped back and his leg sank into the trick step. He was stuck, unable to do anything, but cower in fear as Angelina glared at him.

"Angie." George said, coming to stand in front of his twin.

"DON'T call me that." She growled.

"You didn't hear what Flint said about you." George said. "About both of you." He looked over at Alicia. "It was..." He shook his head. "Fred and I couldn't let it stand."

Angelina and Alicia looked at each other. Angelina raised an eyebrow and Alicia sighed and shrugged, her meaning clear; they had been trying to stand up for them...even if they'd been going about it in the completely wrong way.

"We fight our own battles." Alicia said.

"If we need your help, we'll ask you." Angelina agreed. She, Alicia, and George. reached under Fred's arms to pull him from the trick step. "Come on, Mcgonagall's not going to be happy if we're late."

Fred and George shared a grin before saying. "She's probably having kittens over it."

Alicia and Angelina simultaneously dropped Fred's arms and left him in the stair.

"You guys can't just leave me here." He said. "Angie...'licia. OY DON'T LEAVE ME."

Mcgonagall ended up being lenient, only lecturing them that she expected Gryffindors to hold themselves to a higher standard than other students. She let the boys go first, stopping Angelina and Alicia at the door she remarked.

"The two of you look tired, I trust that you haven't been working yourselves too hard."

"No Professor." Both girls said, nervously. Not looking at each other to avoid an admission of guilt.

"Good." There was a glint of amusement in Mcgonagall's eye as she continued. "The Gryffindor team is shaping up to be quite good next year. I like our prospects." Waving them out of the office, she shut the door on their stunned expressions.

* * *

"Happy New Year." Angelina said, waving to the other Gryffindors as she entered the common room. She went up the stairs to her dormitory. "ALICIA."

"She's not back yet." Lorraine rolled her eyes. She was sitting on her bed, which had been outfitted with new pink sheets. Angelina snorted.

"Nice bed throw." She handed her a box. "Here, I got these for everyone." She looked around. "Where are Pillar and Samantha?"

None of the other girls had returned home.

"Pillar is talking to her brother in his common room." Lorraine replied.

"Isn't he in Ravenclaw?" Angelina threw herself down on her bed. Lorraine nodded.

"Did you know they don't even have a password?" She rolled her eyes. "All you have to do is answer some dumb riddle."

"Well at least it's sure to keep the Slytherins out." Angelina and Lorraine shared a smirk. "Open the box." She prompted.

Lorraine sighed. She was a pureblood, and while a little shallow, she had a good heart. "Chocolate?" She asked.

"My uncle lives in Belgium." Angelina said. "It's really good."

Lorraine looked at the box and licked her lips. "Well...I guess I can put off my post holidays diet for another week."

"That's the spirit." Angelina said, putting boxes on the bed of the other girls. "I'm off to find Alicia." She went to the stairs. Suddenly a loud siren noise sounded and the stairs turned into a slide. "What the hell?" She said, slipping as she tried to keep her footing, but fell. sliding down she fell on top of someone on the bottom of the stairs. "Who was the idiot?" she shouted annoyed at the common room. "Who tried to go up to the girl's dormitory?"

"You're crushing him." Bill Weasley stopped in front of her and looked down, grinning. Charlie stood next to him, stifling a laugh while Percy was shivering in indignation. Angelina looked down at George's sheepish face.

"Hey Angie." He said.

"Don't call me that." Angelina said, moving off him and hauling him out of the way of a girl coming down the slide. "What were you thinking?" She hissed.

"I got you a present." George said, rubbing his back. "Bill said the dormitory thing was a myth."

"Honestly, I didn't think he'd believe me." Bill said, holding out his hand to pull George up.

Angelina brushed herself off while Percy glared at Bill. Fred ran down the stairs from the boys dormitory. "What happened?"

"George learned a valuable lesson in the importance of following the rules." Percy said.

"Shut up, Percy." George said, pushing the wrapped present into Angelina's hands and walking away.

* * *

"Hey." Angelina slipped into the seat across from George at dinner. "I opened the gift." She said. "Chaser's gloves."

He nodded. "I got the chocolates...guess the same rules don't apply to the boys dorms." He muttered. He was clearly still embarrassed. Angelina pulled his plate away, forcing him to look up at her.

"So..." She said slowly. "I'm assuming you'll need help...getting Bill back?"

George grinned and nodded. Two weeks later Bill walked into the common room with green hair and went straight to where Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia were sitting on one of the couches.

"How did you learn this charm, Flitwick doesn't teach it until 4th year?" He looked impressed. "I can't get the counter charm to work."

"Don't be so closed minded, it's not magic." Fred said, grinning over at Alicia.

"It's hair dye." She said. "I had my mum send it to me."

"We put it in your shampoo." George said.

Bill laughed. "I should tell Mcgonagall to give you detention, but Merlin that was inspired."

"BILL" Percy was horrified.

"What?" Bill said. "I can't punish creativity."

* * *

Final exams came all too quickly. They passed with heists to copy Ravenclaw notes, trying to find the kitchens, and sharing care packages from their parents. Mrs. Weasley's home made fudge became the most coveted item in the first year snack pool. Fred and George had begun a snack empire, selling fudge by the tin to students in the other houses until Percy uncovered their operation and shut them down. All too soon It was the goodbye banquet.

"I can't believe Slytherin won." Alicia said.

"It's because Snape rigged it in their favor." Pillar said. "He's the worst." The other first year girls grumbled their agreement as Dumbledore gave his speech, congratulating the gloating Slytherin students. Marcus Flint kept looking over at them, giving them a smug look.

"Keep laughing." Angelina said. "We'll see what happens next year when we kick their butts on the quidditch field."

* * *

"Angelina, Alicia." Fred and George ran over as they got off the train.

"Here's our address." Fred said. "We'd write you first, but our owl's on his death bed."

"He's been on his death bed since the Spanish Inquisition." George agreed.

Angelina took the piece of parchment was holding out to her. "I'll think about it." She said. The boys nodded, then ran back to their family. Angelina turned to Alicia.

"So I'm coming to visit in July." She said.

"Bring a broom." Alicia said. "There's a field not to far from my house and my mom says she can do a concealment charm so no muggles stumble on us."

"We are owning that quidditch field next year." Angelina grinned. Sticking her tongue out at Flint one last time, she hugged Alicia and walked over to her parents.


	2. Second Year

Angelina ran at the platform, not caring about her parents' hushed protests to "mind the muggles." She didn't care who saw her; she couldn't wait to see her friends again and she had a present for Alicia.

"Angie!" The first person she was greeted by was Lee Jordan. "And how was your summer?"

She gave him a small smile. "Seen Alicia?"

Lee stumbled back, clutching his chest as though she'd hit him. "How rude." He scoffed. "Not even a hug?"

She sighed and held open her arms. "Come on." She muttered. "Let's get this over with."

Lee let out a dramatic harumph before stepping forward. "I accept your affection, even if it is only given out of pity."

"JORDAN!"

They both looked behind them to see the Weasley twins getting onto the platform. Their parents, brothers, and sister following them. Lee gave Angelina a peck on the cheek before running towards them. "And the newest beaters of the Gryffindor have arrived, striking fear into the hearts of the Slytherin opposition." He grinned, giving them high fives. Angelina heard Percy mutter something about the twins having not even tried out for the team while Mrs. Weasley fussed about their not causing any trouble. Angelina grinned; as if those boys could avoid it. George caught her eye and gave her a small wave that she was about to return when her parents caught up with her. Her father began scolding her for running ahead, listing the litany of possible outcomes to her actions should a muggle have seen her while her mother simply smiled.

It wasn't until she boarded the train that she found Alicia. "I brought a surprise." She announced, holding up her present. Alicia grinned, holding up a box of cakes.

"Me too." She grinned. "Trade?"

Angelina took the box and handed over the package. It was obvious what it was, but Alicia pretended to be confused as to it's contents.

"Is it a puppy?" She asked.

"Yes." Angelina said. "It's a special broomstick shaped puppy."

"Don't mess with me Johnson." Alicia said, tearing open the package. "I want a puppy."

"You can get a cat." Angelina said, sitting down across from her. Alicia, who'd been excitedly examining her new broom; a cleansweep, just like the one Angelina had gotten for herself, glared at her.

"Not a cat person." She said, shaking her head. "I want a dog." She sighed, examining the broom. "This is amazing." She grinned. "I bet I make the team now."

Angelina had opened the box of cakes and begun stuffing them into her mouth. "Thank goodness you only brought one of these, otherwise I'd be too heavy for my broom." She snorted as some crumbs fell from her mouth.

"Oh very ladylike." Alicia said.

"If ladylike keeps me from having cake then forget about it." Angelina leaned back in her seat. The train lurched forwards and began moving. "And so another year begins."

* * *

"Is it possible that Snape got even more unpleasant since last year?" Alicia groaned. "How are we supposed to finish this essay if we have Quidditch try outs on Friday?"

"What do you think of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Angelina said. She was lounging in one of the common room armchairs, throwing a ball in the air and catching it.

"Professor Aradon?" Alicia said. "She's okay, I suppose." She sighed. "Wonder what happened to Professor Bobino."

"I heard it was dragon pox." Angelina said.

"You'd be wrong." Fred said, sitting in the seat next to Alicia. George sat on the arm of Angelina's couch.

"I heard it was because he got handsy with the mer folk." Lee said, coming to sit on Alicia's other side. "And the Mer king speared him."

Angelina burst out laughing. The others looked at her in confusion. "Are you guys serious?" She said. "Let me tell you about Mer-folk in these waters..." She sat up. "Actually." She grinned, "Let me show you."

Lee glanced outside. "It's almost dark." He said.

Alicia shot him a look. "And?" She smirked. "You scared?"

"Percy will be furious." Fred said, glancing at his older brother, then looked over at his twin.

"Seems like more of a reason to do it, then." George supplied. Fred grinned.

"Excellent." He said, clapping his hands together. "So, Johnson." He motioned to the portrait hole. "Lead on."

Angelina stood, "We'll need a torch. Split off in teams of two. I'm leading one, the other led by Alicia."

"Why you two?" Fred asked.

"Because no one knows how to travel the castle at night better than us." Alicia replied.

Fred raised an eyebrow. "And how, Miss Spinnet, did you come upon this information?"

Angelina and Alicia shared a look, grinning. "Trade secret."

"Can I come?" A small voice asked. The group turned.

"Who are you?" Fred asked the brunette who was standing about a foot from them. She smiled, nervously before answering.

"Katie...Katie Bell."

"The hat stall." Lee said, looking her up and down. "So, where did you almost end up."

She looked at the ground, embarrassed before murmuring. "Slytherin." Fred and George blanched. Lee coughed. Angelina rolled her eyes. The poor girl seemed nervous and it didn't help that the others were gaping at her like she was a freak show.

"I almost got Hufflepuff." Alicia said, trying to draw the attention away from the boys and their ridiculousness. "And Angie almost got Ravenclaw."

"Ignore the boys." Angelina agreed. "They're jealous because they're uncomplicated Gryffindors."

"Boring." Alicia supplied."Without any depth." Lee and George scoffed while Fred stuck out his tongue.

"I still want to come with you." Katie said.

"Where?" Fred asked, innocently.

"To the lake, to see the mer-folk." She replied. "I've never seen any before."

"Well we don't let first years come on our epic adventures." Fred replied.

Angelina rolled her eyes. "We were first years last year." She pointed out. Fred arrogantly puffed out his chest.

"But not this year." He said.

Katie glared at him, a furious blush forming on her cheeks. "Either you take me with you or..."

"Or what?" George asked, amused.

"I tell your brother what your plans are." Katie stuck out her chin defiantly. "His name is Percy, right?" She smiled innocently. "I hear he writes to your mother almost 4 times a week." The twins' jaws dropped in horror. Angelina and Alicia burst out laughing while Lee winced.

"I like you." Alicia said.

"You sure you shouldn't be in Slytherin?" Fred muttered, letting out a huff of air and leaning back against the couch. Alicia smacked him on the back of the head. George held out his hand towards Katie.

"George Weasley." He said. "That's Fred. He's my twin, just in case you hadn't figured it out."

"No." Angelina faked a gasp and covered her mouth. "I had no idea."

George frowned down at her as Katie shook his hand.

"Lee Jordan." Lee said. "Future Quidditch commentator."

Katie raised an eyebrow. "Future?"

"It's not official yet." Lee explained. Fred snorted.

"More like you haven't even been offered it."

"Yet." Lee said. George gave him an amused look. Angelina knew them well enough to know that this back and forth could go on for hours.

"We have 20 minutes before we don't have an excuse to leave the common room." She said. "Lee, Fred, and Alicia go first. George, Katie and I will follow in a few minutes. We'll meet by the hourglasses in the main hall. Do not get caught."

"Yes ma'am." Fred saluted, winking, before standing and sneaking over to the portrait hole. The others followed. Angelina, Katie, and George waited for 5 minutes, before nonchalantly leaving the common room.

After 10 tense minutes of traveling through the castle where they almost got caught by Peeves and had to duck into a corridor on the third floor to avoid him. Sneaking out of the castle, they filed to the edge of the lake.

"Okay." Fred said. "Now what?"

Angelina threw a grin at him over her shoulder before shedding her robe and taking off her shoes.

"ANGIE." George hissed, covering his eyes.

She stepped into the lake, then stuck her head under the water, singing out three notes. Stepping back she waited. The sun started to set and a chilly wind blew. Angelina hugged herself and fought the urge to shiver. Then across the lake there was a ripple. Then the merfolk emerged. There were 4 of them; two young mermaids, a merman and a child. The others shrank back and Angelina didn't blame them. Unlike mermaids in warmer waters, who looked like the depiction in fairytales and story books, they were more fish than human. Green skinned with gills, slimy with webs on their hands they were quite scary... to those who didn't expect it.

She smiled, asking them for their names. It had been so long since she'd spoken mermish that she stumbled over her words a bit, but the merfolk didn't seem to mind. Giggling they asked her about her funny looking friends, told her about their village in the lake and how the giant squid liked to steal food from their houses.

All the while, Angelina's friends gaped at them, open mouthed. Angelina frowned at them. "You're being rude." George kicked his shoes off and walked into the water next to her.

"Hi." He said, waving nervously. "I can't speak mermish."

One of the mermaids covered her mouth and giggled. They waved and dove back into the water, going into the deeper part of the lake. Angelina turned to the group. "So now you know why Professor Bobino didn't have an affair with a mermaid."

* * *

Quidditch try outs. Angelina and Alicia stood next to each other on the field, brooms in hand. In the stands Fred and George were waiting for the beater trials. Katie was with them as was Lee. They were watching to see if Angelina and Alicia made the team. Oliver Wood came out into field, carrying a ball crate. "I'm assuming you're all hear because you think you know how to play Quidditch." He said, scanning the assembled students. "I'm looking for two new beaters and two new chasers. The challenge is simple." He dropped the crate and opened it, pulling out the quaffle. "The first two people to score a goal past me, get the position." He grasped his broom and took off, circling the hoops. "You have three tries each." He said.

There were four people in front of Angelina and Alicia. They looked at each other, both thinking the same thing; they didn't want their chance at a spot on the team to be compromised because they were too far down the line.

As it turned out, they had nothing to worry about. The first person could barely aim, the second almost flew into the goal post and the third let the quaffle slip from from his fingers before he even got a shot in. Finally after the fourth person missed all three shots, it was Alicia's turn. She took a deep breath. Angelina squeezed her shoulder and gave her a reassuring nod. Alicia grabbed the quaffle and kicked off the ground. Circling the goal posts, she threw the quaffle. It whistled through the air. Wood caught it, but Angelina saw a slight look of hope on his face when he tossed it back to Alicia. She caught it and spun around, tossing it to the third hoop, causing Oliver to dive. He stopped it, but just barely. Alicia dropped down and grabbed the quaffle, aiming for the opposite hoop from where Wood was guarding. It went through. Angelina whooped as Katie, Lee, Fred and George cheered.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a new chaser." Oliver said. "Miss?"

"Spinnet." Alicia said. "Alicia Spinnet."

Oliver flew closer to her. "Welcome to the team, Spinnet." He said, holding out his hand. Alicia grinned and shook it. Waving down at Angelina, she landed. It was Angelina's turn. Mounting her broom, she took the quaffle that Alicia held out to her. Gripping it tight, she reminded herself to thank George for giving her chaser's gloves. Her palms were sweating and she didn't want to drop the quaffle. She kicked off, flying up. Floating up across from Oliver, she took a second to take a deep breath. Then she flew straight at the left most goal post. Oliver seemed to understand what she was planning to do and waited. As she threw, he came from behind the goal and punched his arm through, hitting the ball and sending it flying. Angelina caught the quaffle and spun around, throwing it into the furthest goal. Even though Wood flew as fast as he could, he still couldn't catch up and the quaffle went threw the hoop.

A silence fell over the pitch. Oliver dove down and caught the ball. He grinned and looked up at Angelina. "You can all go back to the common room." He shouted. "I've found my two chasers."

"They're second years." An angry fifth year whose turn would have been after Angelina shouted. He faltered when Oliver glared down at him and walked off the field, grumbling. Fred and George threw balls of paper on his head as he and his annoyed friends walked away.

Angelina landed next to Alicia and hugged her, jumping up and down. Oliver landed near them. "Miss?" He held out his hand to Angelina."

"Johnson." She replied, shaking it.

He nodded. "We practice every Thursday after dinner and as many times as we can before a match." He smiled. "Welcome to the team, Spinnet and Johnson."

* * *

"We're on the team!" Fred and George chanted as they all walked up to the castle. "We're on the team!"

A loud barking noise sounded from Hagrid's hut. Alicia turned and looked over. "Awwwww." She pointed. "Hagrid's got a new pet."

" licia wait." Katie said. "That dog looks funny." But Alicia ran down the hill towards the basket next to Hagrid's hut. Angelina and Katie shared a look before following. Fred, George and Lee sighed before doing the same.

"I feel like you girls are constantly getting us into trouble." Lee said. "And I'm saying that."

Alicia was kneeling next to the basket. A puppy's head was pointing out from under a blanket. It had large jaws, and grey fur with white and black spots. "Hey little guy." She said, reaching out towards the head. It sniffed the air tentatively. Then wagged it's tail. Another head poked out from under the blanket. "Look there's 2...wait 3" Alicia grinned as a third head emerged. "Aren't they cute?"

Angelina frowned, looking at the puppies. "They look kinda..." She reached out and snatched Alicia's hand back.

"What?"

"There aren't 3." Angelina said, pulling the blanket off. "There's only one."

"Bloody hell." George exclaimed as he and the boys shrank back. Katie stepped closer.

"I think he's cute." She said, reaching out her hand and patting the nearest head. It whined and licked her fingers. The middle head's tongue lolled out of it's mouth and the third head tried to get towards. Angelina and Alicia.

"Cerberus." Alicia said.

"Bless you." Lee said.

"No." She said. "In the muggle myth of the underworld. The gate was guarded by a three headed dog named Cerberus." She pulled her hand out of Angelina's grasp and scratched the nearest head behind the ears. "Except he was supposed to be black."

"What are yer doin out 'ere?" Hagrid stuck his head out the door and looked at them. He grinned down at the three headed dog. "I see yeh found Fluffy."

"Fluffy?" Fred was horrified.

"It's one of the dogs that they modeled the dog of the underworld on and you thought you'd name it...Fluffy?" George asked.

"He's jus a baby." Hagrid said.

"He's sweet." Katie said. "Go on, Angelina. Touch him."

"I'm more of an owl person." Angelina hesitated as the center head gazed up at her. He did have nice eyes. Reaching out she let him sniff her hand before scratching behind his ears. "He's okay..." She said, flinching as he licked her fingers.

"So..." Fred said, walking over to Hagrid. "How goes things in the forest?"

Hagrid frowned. "Never yeh mind, Weasley." He growled. "Dinner will be startin soon. Don want ta be late." He shooed them away, covering Fluffy's basket up and bringing him inside his hut. The others grabbed their brooms and walked up the hill to the castle.

* * *

"What's Lee doing?" Angelina said, watching as Lee waited by the door, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Waiting for professor Mcgonagall." George said.

"Why?" Alicia asked. George smirked.

"You'll see." He said cryptically.

They got their answer a few minutes later when Mcgonagall entered the Great Hall for breakfast. Lee pointed his wand at his throat and muttered a charm. "ANNOUNCING, THE ARRIVAL OF PROFESSOR MINERVA MCGONAGALL. HEAD OF GRYFFINDOR HOUSE AND LOOKING SMASHING IN HER EMERALD ROBES. WHY THE HEAD OF GRYFFINDOR HOUSE IS WEARING SLYTHERIN COLORS, NO ONE IS SURE, BUT YOU CON'T DENY THAT SHE DOESN'T WEAR THEM WELL."

"Jordan, what are you doing?" Mcgonagall hissed. All around the hall, everyone had abandoned their breakfast to watch the scene unfold. Lee simply smiled and followed the professor as she made her way to the staff table.

"He's auditioning." Fred explained.

"NOW SHE'S ARRIVED AT HER CHAIR AND WATCH AS SHE SITS, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN. THE PERFECT COMBINATION OF GRACE AND DANGER. I HOPE YOU'VE ALL DONE YOUR HOMEWORK. BECAUSE OTHERWISE DETENTION MIGHT BE RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER."

Mcgonagall put a hand to her temple and looked up at Jordan in annoyance.

"JUDGING FROM THAT LOOK I'D SAY DETENTION MIGHT BE IN STORE FOR ME AS WELL." He nervously grinned. "OF COURSE, SHE COULD VERY WELL STOP THIS RIGHT NOW IF SHE ALLOWS ME TO DO THE COMMENTARY DURING THE QUIDDITCH MATCH NEXT WEEK."

There was an outbreak of chuckles throughout the hall. McGonagall motioned for him to come closer. "How long do you intend to continue this?" She asked.

"I CAN DO THIS ALL DA-y" Jordan's voice became hushed as she snatched away his wand.

"Consider next week's game a test run." she said. "But you must concentrate on the game and solely on the game. There's to be no goofing around. Is that understood?" Lee nodded vigorously. McGonagall handed him back his wand.

"INTRODUCING." Lee boomed, walking down the steps towards the Gryffindor table. "THE NEWEST AND MOST ATTRACTIVE QUIDDITCH COMMENTATOR: LEE JORDAN."

Angelina couldn't believe it had worked, but she joined the rest of her house in cheering him on.

* * *

"Did you hear who might be coming to Hogwarts next year?" Katie asked. Angelina rolled her eyes.

"Will they help you pass your charms final?" She asked, pointing to the books in front of them. She was tutoring Katie for her final exams. Katie scoffed and poked her in the side.

"Come on, guess."

Fred sat next to them. "My little brother, Ron. Though I don't see why you're so excited about it."

Katie smirked before saying. "Harry Potter."

Angelina laughed. "Harry Potter?"

"Why's that so funny?" Katie asked.

"Well for starters no one's seen or heard from him since..." Angelina trailed off, a chill fell over the room as if even the mention of that particular event could summon the monster their parents had warned them against.

"I heard he moved to America." Lee said.

"I heard he's living among a group of wizard sages in Tibet, learning all sorts of spells unknown to European wizards." Alicia said, looking up from the broom she was polishing.

"Or maybe he's just an ordinary kid." Angelina suggested.

"Well he better get Gryffindor." Katie said. Angelina snorted.

"Well he has to now." She said. "Because you've said you wanted it." She pushed the book closer to her. "Charms...now."

Alicia frowned. "Maybe we could sneak out and practice one last time." She suggested. "I won't get to play all summer."

Katie looked up in excitement from her books. "Can we?"

Angelina covered her face. "All of you are going to fail tomorrow." She muttered as Fred and George began making plans as to how they'd sneak out and where they'd meet up.

"Don't be such a Ravenclaw." Lee said. "We need to train our newest chaser." He patted Katie on the shoulder. "There's a position opening up and we'll need all the help we can get."

"Did you hear Marcus Flint might be trying out for the Slytherin team next year?" Fred said. "I'm going to be very happy to hit a bludger in his face." He stood. "George and I will go first." He motioned towards his brother. "The rest of you wait a few minutes then-"

"Then what, Fred?"

Fred gulped, turning behind him to smile up at Percy. "HEeeey." He said. "I was...I just." He cleared his throat. "How are you this fine evening?"

"I just got a letter from mother." Percy said. "She says that if you don't pass all your exams, she's making you and George eat boiled cabbage for the entire summer."

Fred gulped as his brother swept away. Then he and George turned to Angelina. "Help us." He begged.

"Please." George said.

* * *

"I've found that the muggle game basketball helps." Alicia said, sitting across from Katie on the Hogwarts express.

"Basketball?" She asked.

"It's a game where you need to throw a ball in a hoop." Alicia explained. "It's played on the ground, but if you find a group of people to play with it'll improve your aim and your hand eye coordination." She grinned. "It'll make you one hell of a chaser."

"Friends." Fred announced as he and George entered the compartment.

"Weasleys." Katie replied.

"First year." Fred retorted.

"Not anymore."

"Yeah." George agreed. "You're a second year now."

"That's infinitely worse." Fred said.

"You were just a second year." Angelina said, shaking her head.

"And I got through it as quick as possible." Fred said.

Angelina snorted. George cleared his throat. "Thank you, Angie." He said softly. "We would have had a hard time passing without your help."

Angelina gave him a small smile. "Well I see which of the brothers got the politeness." She smirked at Katie. "And I couldn't let you get held back and stay a terrible second year."

"Hey!" Kate was indignant.

"Well, I should warn you that Percy told my mother about your help." George continued. "So you should expect to be overwhelmed with her gratitude." He glanced out the window as the train whistled as it pulled into the station "In about..." The train stopped. "3 seconds."

Just as the outside doors opened, Angelina saw a short red headed woman board. There was a thumping noise, then she pushed open the compartment door. "Which one of you is Angelina?"

Angelina hesitantly raised her hand. The woman enveloped her in a hug. "Thank you." She said. "I don't know what my boys would have done without you."

"We would have been okay." Fred said.

"We're not imbeciles." George huffed.

Angelina was overwhelmed by the woman squeezing her. "It was really nothing, Mrs. Weasley." She said. Molly Weasley pulled back, smiling, before ushering her boys out. Angelina said her goodbyes and began pulling her trunk out of the train when she was stopped in the corridor by Marcus Flint.

"So...hanging out with blood traitors are you?" He said.

"What century do you think you live in?" Angelina said, trying to push back him. He put his arm out, stopping her.

"I'm going to be seeing you on the Quidditch pitch next year." He growled.

Angelina rolled her eyes. "If you keep playing like I hear you did in tryouts this year, I don't think so."She smirked. "At least Gryffindor got past the first round and didn't get our butts handed to us by Hufflepuff."

"Hmmm." Marcus hummed. "Just watch yourself, Johnson."

"You too, Flint." She shoved him out of the way and walked past. getting off the train.


	3. Third Year

"Alicia." Angelina rolled her eyes and dragged her friend down the Hogwarts Express corridor. "He's not a zoo animal."

"I just want to know which compartment he's in." Alicia said, twisting to look into the different compartments as they passed.

Angelina rolled her eyes. "We don't even know if he's boarded the train yet." She said. "And if you don't stop worrying about what compartment he might be in, we definitely won't get one."

Alicia huffed. Angelina spotted an empty compartment next to her, she opened the door and walked in.

"Excuse me." A haughty voice said from behind them. Angelina and Alicia turned and looked down at a pinched faced pale blonde boy with slicked back hair. He was standing about 5 feet down the corridor. "I believe that's my compartment." He said. Angelina glanced inside and shook her head.

"It's empty." She said. "And we saw it first."

He crossed his arms and glared at them. "Don't you know who you're talking to?" He said.

"Don't you know who you're talking to?" Angelina retorted. Alicia nodded her agreement.

"My father's one of the school governors." The boy said. Alicia and Angelina looked at each other, both not believing what they were hearing.

"First year?" Alicia said, smiling; trying the diplomatic tact. "Look, how about you go and find some other first years and ask them to share a compartment? We'd let you share ours, but we're waiting on some friends."

He looked up at her in disgust. "I don't want to share, I want the compartment."

Alicia let out a surprised cough. Angelina pushed her back. "Listen, brat. We got here first."

"My father-" He began.

"Mine's a clerk for the Wizengamot." Angelina said. "And hers" She pointed to Alicia "is a muggle scientist. Which means he has all sorts of interesting scary machines that you can't even imagine in your wildest dreams. So you don't want to be on our bad side." She leaned down and glared at him. "Now leave."

He puffed out his chest and muttered something that sounded like "half blood", but Angelina couldn't be sure. Whirling around, he stormed down the hall, almost knocking into Lee Jordan who was carrying a strange box. Lee watched him leave, before coming into the compartment. "Do you realize who that was?"

"Some entitled pureblood who's going to end up in Slytherin." Alicia said, sitting down and looking out the window. Angelina noted that her fist were clenched; she'd heard the boy's muttering.

"Not just any entitled pureblood." Jordan said. "He's a Malfoy."

Alicia raised an eyebrow, Angelina frowned. "Well that explains it." She said. The box in Lee's arms jostled. Angelina looked at it. "What is that?" She pointed.

Lee was grinning from ear to ear; a sign that usually didn't bode well for those in the immediate vicinity. "Just a present for Marcus Flint."

The train jolted and began moving ust as Katie Bell entered the compartment. "Did you guys hear?" She said, excitedly glancing around. "Harry Potter is somewhere on this train."

Alicia shot Angelina a triumphant look. "Told you so." Angelina rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure he doesn't want to be stared at like a zoo animal." Lee said. The box in his arms moved slightly. Angelina frowned.

"Lee..." She jumped back as the top opened and a hairy leg stuck out. "LEE."

"It's perfectly safe." Lee insisted, hastily poking the leg back into the box. "What?" He said, looking innocently at the girls who were glaring at him.

"If that thing escapes." Katie sat next to Alicia and crossed her arms. "I'm feeding it to you."

Lee was about to retort when the compartment door opened and the twins piled in, bumping into each other in an effort to get in. "Is that it?" George asked, pointing to the box.

Lee nodded.

"Can we see it?" Fred asked. "No, wait. Can we hold it?"

Lee was about to open the box when Katie cleared her throat. Lee looked at her as she frowned at him. "Maybe later." He said.

Fred and George sat down. The train ride continued without incident, the friends exchanged stories about the summer, laughing and joking.

"We're getting near the school." Katie said. The boys looked at each other.

"And?" Fred asked innocently.

"We need to change.' Angelina said, pointing to the door. "Out."

"We need to change too." Lee said.

"Which is why we'll leave when we're done and you can come in." Alicia said.

"Take your box with you." Angelina said as Lee was about to exit the compartment, leaving the box on the seat.

Lee sighed and grabbed the box before following the twins out. Katie smiled and pulled down the shades.

When Alicia, Katie and Angelina exited the compartment to wait for the boys to change, they caught sight of three figures coming down the hall. Angelina raised an eyebrow as she recognized the person in the center. It was the pale boy from before; Malfoy. He'd clearly made some new friends. Two boys that were about twice his height and width.

"How's our compartment?" He asked, scoffing as he saw the Gryffindor ties they were wearing.

"It's lovely, thank you." Angelina said. Her wand was in her pocket and while she knew it wasn't allowed to do magic on the train, she thought that McGonagall might make an exception towards self defense. It didn't matter. As they drew closer, the door to the compartment opened and George came out.

"You guys can come back in." He frowned at Malfoy and his cronies, then turned back to Angelina. He glanced at her hand that was close to her wand pocket and raised an eyebrow.

"Malfoy." They all turned around to see Marcus Flint striding down the hall. He paused as he took in the sight around him.

"He's your friend?" George asked, looking at Flint in disgust. "Well that's a glowing character endorsement."

Flint ignored him. "I told you not to cause trouble with the compartment issue." He glared at Angelina. "They may be friends with blood traitors but it's not worth you getting detention before you even get to Hogwarts."

Malfoy gave them one last glare, then shoved past them. His neanderthal friends followed. Flint watched them leave, then turned back to Angelina. Alicia and Katie were moving inside the compartment. He gave her an expectant look.

"I suppose I should thank you." She said.

"It's the least you can do." Flint said. Angelina scoffed.

"Then I won't." She turned and walked back into the compartment, bumping shoulders with George who was still standing in the door way. He shot one last glare at Flint, then shut the door.

* * *

They'd all gathered in the Great hall, waiting for the sorting. The whispers were going around the hall, wondering which house Harry Potter would end up in. Angelina poked at the empty plate; she was hungry. She put her elbow on the table. Katie raised an eyebrow.

"Spare me your speech on table manners." She said. "It doesn't count if there's no food on the table."

Katie shook her head. "Always looking for a loop hole."

"What I'm looking for is food." She glanced over at Fred and George. "Hey, do you think you guys could sneak off and find us some snacks, since you've got that connect to the kitchen?"

"No can do, Angie." George said. "If you'll turn your attention to the table, you'll see that Professor Snape has his eyes riveted to the door. We couldn't sneak out unless we had an invisibility cloak...and those don't really exist."

"Sure they do." Katie said. Angelina shook her head.

"I mean, yeah, there are those that fade after a couple of years," She said. "but real ones like the one in the Beetle the bard story don't exist." She glanced over at Snape. "What's gotten into him?" She asked.

At that moment the doors opened and professor McGonagall entered, the first years, clustered in a pack behind her.

"They're so tiny." Lee whispered. "And twitchy."

"So were you, at one point." Katie whispered back.

"I was not." He hissed back indignantly.

Fred and George shared snickers as a red headed boy who had to be their little brother walked past and shot them a glare. "We told Ron he had to wrestle a troll." Fred explained.

Angelina shook her head as Alicia laughed. "Reckon that's him?" Alicia pointed to the boy standing next to Ron Weasley. He had dark hair that refused to lie flat, round glasses, and he was nervously looking around.

"Yup." Fred said.

The sorting began. The first addition to Gryffindor was a girl named Lavander Brown. She had big eyes and blushed furiously as she sat down at the table. A girl with bushy brown hair named Hermione Granger was next. Unsurprisingly the Malfoy boy was put into Slytherin before the hat had even fully touched his head. Then came one of a pair of twins, Pavarti Patil. Her sister went to Ravenclaw. Then Macgonagall said the name the entire hall had been waiting to hear.

"Potter, Harry." The hall fell silent. Everyone watched with baited breath as he walked up the steps to the stool. She caught a glimpse of his pale face, looking out nervously at the hall. They all waited. After about a minute the hat opened his mouth flap and shouted. "GRYFFINDOR."

There was a roar from the table and Angelina jumped up and began clapping with her classmates. The twins began a chant of "we got Potter. We got Potter."

As she sat down, she glanced at the Slytherin table. They were clapping softly, but they didn't look happy. Her eyes met Flint's and he smirked at her. She looked away, focusing on high fiving Katie and Alicia.

After all the students had been sorted, Dumbledore started the feast.

"Thank god." Angelina said, grabbing the closest dish.

At the end of the feast, Dumbledore stood up and introduced the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Another one?" Alicia mumbled, looking over Professor Quirrell.

He then ran through the usual school announcements, but instead of just telling them to keep out of the story, he also warned them about the third floor corridor. Angelina glanced over at Fred and George who already looked like they were plotting something. "Don't." She whispered.

"What?" Fred whispered back.

"He seems serious." She said. "I think we should follow the rules on this one."

Fred looked like he was going to protest, but George looked more thoughtful. He put his hand on his twin's arm and shook his head. "I think we should listen to Angie." He murmured. Fred relented.

* * *

Angelina sat with the rest of the team in the stands, watching the chaser and seeker tryouts.

"Katie's got some stiff competition." Lee whispered, coming to sit next to them. He was wearing a heavy scarf and a carrying a hot cup of tea.

"Why are you whispering?" Alicia said.

"And what's with the scarf?" Angelina asked. "It's the middle of September."

Lee sniffed. "My voice is my fortune. I need to protect it before the match."

Fred and George looked at each other. George pulled out his wand and muttered something. Lee lifted his tea to his lips and frowned. Turning the cup over, nothing came out. he tapped the now frozen cup of tea, then glared at the twins. Angelina pulled out her wand and undid the charm, the tea unfroze and spilled all over Lee's front. He jumped to his feet and tried to wipe down the mess. The entire group chuckled.

"It's NOT FUNNY." He said, glaring at them before walking away.

"What happened to whispering?" Fred called after him.

"I thought your voice was your fortune?" George agreed, holding out his hand to Angelina. "Nice one Angie."

She high fived him. Alicia nudged her shoulder.

"Katie's up." She whispered. They all focused their attention on the try out. It was the same challenge Angelina and Alicia had done the year before. A person needed to get a goal past Oliver in order to get the position.

"What if she doesn't get it?" George asked.

Alicia and Angelina gave him a look.

"It could happen." George said. "No one else has gotten a goal past him. Then what happens?"

"Knowing Oliver he'd sacrifice having a full team rather than allowing one person on it who wasn't up to his standards." Angelina muttered.

On the field, Katie flew up, quaffle in hand. Oliver blocked the first attempt. She got the second one in. Alicia and Angelina jumped to their feet, cheering. Fred and George clapped.

"Quite good." George said, putting on an air of snobbishness.

"Yes." Fred said. "I do believe that girl's moxie."

"Hush." Alicia said. "The seeker tryouts are starting."

The seeker tryouts were disastrous. Oliver didn't use the real snitch, but instead enchanted a bunch of golf balls to fly around the pitch. The different seekers had to catch them. They flew into each other, one flew directly into the stands, almost hitting Katie, who'd come up to watch the rest of the tryouts. Another managed to set the tail end of her broom on fire. After about 3 hours, it was dark. Oliver closed the tryouts. The team met him in the changing rooms.

"So we just don't have a seeker?" Alicia said. Oliver shrugged.

"None of them were good enough."

"Oliver," Angelina said. "How are we supposed to play without a seeker?"

"When the right person presents himself-"

"Themselves." Alicia, Angelina and Katie corrected.

"I'll put them on the team." Oliver said. He grinned and clapped George on the back as he left. The team watched him leave.

"Okay." Fred said, holding up his hands. "I know I accidentally hit him with a bludger last year, but I had no idea the damage would be that bad."

* * *

They were discussing their team's predicament on the way to Hogsmeade.

"I say we mutiny." Fred said. "Who made him team captain?"

"Professor McGonagall." Alicia said.

"Well I didn't vote for him." George muttered.

Angelina shook her head. "We can't overthrow him, we've got enough problems as it is." She sighed.

"I wish Katie could have come with us." Lee whispered. Everyone groaned.

"Lee, just talk." Angelina said.

"Besides, Katie can come next year." Alicia said.

Fred clapped his hands. "Alright, no more doom and gloom; we have a schedule. Zonko's, Honeydukes, the Shrieking Shack and then we top it all off with a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks."

Angelina rolled her eyes. "Did the great Fred Weasley just break fun down to a schedule?"

"Hey." George said. "We take our fun seriously."

"We are the entrepreneurs of fun." Fred agreed.

"I wanna do the shrieking shack first." Alicia said and Angelina nodded with agreement. The boys looked at each other.

"Oh don't tell me you're scared." Angelina challenged.

"No." George said, defensively. "It's just...haunted."

"We go to a school full of ghosts." Angelina said, blankly.

"But...there are other things that could be there." Fred chimed in.

"Ghouls." George said.

"Trolls." Fred agreed.

"Banshees." George added.

"Kappas." Fred suggested.

"Kappas live in water." Alicia said.

"In Japan." Angelina added.

"A red cap then." Fred said. Angelina laughed.

"It's a shack." She rolled her eyes. "Red caps live in castle ruins." She tilted her head. "We go to the shrieking shack first and I'll buy you a butterbeer."

Fred and George looked at each other and seemed to debate it for a second, then nodded.

"Alright." George said. "But I'm warning you; any sign of a zombie and I'm mounting a tactical retreat."

Angelina looped an arm through Alicia's and leaned in to whisper. "That means he's going to run away."

"Bravely." George said as Fred huffed.

They made their way toward the abandoned building. It wasn't in the village, but about a 10 minute walk out, with a stretch of forest between it and the main part of Hogsmeade.

"No one knows why it was built." Fred whispered. "Some people say it just appeared without explanation."

"Well, magical construction doesn't tend to take that long." Angelina retorted.

"Well..." Fred said. "It's creepy." They stopped at the gate. There was a large field and in the center stood the shrieking shack. It was about 3 stories high, with shuttered and boarded up windows, There was no visible door and the land directly around it had no greenery. The birds weren't singing here. Angelina had been excited to see it, but having it in front of her made her question that eagerness.

"It's not so bad." George said, causing them all to jump. "What?" He asked.

"Shh." Alicia hissed. "I think I heard something."

They all listened. At first there was nothing. Then there was a hushed whisper on the air.

"Johnson." Angelina stumbled and gripped the fence in front of her. Who was that?

"Any ghost that's hanging around here, it isn't funny." She called out, looking around.

"Angelina Johnson..." The voice said. She frowned. There was something disturbingly familiar about that voice. She turned and glared at the tree line, pulling out her wand. There was a slight movement and she fired a leg locker curse at it. Marcus Flint fell out from behind the tree. There was noise as other Slytherins left, running away. Flint was trying to stand, with very little success.

"What do we have here?" Angelina said, walking over to him, her wand still in hand.

"You were scared." Flint hissed. "And here I thought Gryffindors were brave."

"We're also not stupid." She said. "And," she glanced back at the trees where Flint's friends had gone. "We don't abandon each other in a time of need."

"Let me up." Flint demanded.

She sighed tapped her wand against her chin. "If I could only remember that pesky countercurse."

"Johnson." He growled.

"Say please." She said.

"Angie, just leave him." George said. Flint shot him a glare before grinding out

"Please."

Angelina gaped at him, then nodded, whispering the countercurse. Flint's legs moved apart and he jumped to his feet.

"Say thank you." Fred said. Flint huffed and gave Angelina a jerky nod before running after his friends.

* * *

"Halloween's more fun with Muggles." Alicia declared as they sat down for the feast. "We get to go out and dress up and eat candy."

"Sounds bloody awful." George declared, sitting across from them. "This way you get all the rewards without the exercise."

"It's fun." Alicia insisted. "You can be anything; a ghost, a monster, a-"

"A witch?" Fred suggested.

"No, Freddie." George shook his head. "That's way to outlandish."

"Completely unbelievable." Fred agreed.

"The two of you are ridiculous." Alicia muttered.

"Alicia, why would you play pretend when the real things are all around you?" Fred motioned to the great hall. The usual floating pumpkins and live bats were above them.

"Because Halloween is good clean fun without the danger of reality." Alicia retorted.

"There's no danger here." Fred said, reaching for the food. The doors to the Great Hall banged open and Professor Quirrell ran in, his face pale, his turban slightly askew.

"TROOOOOLLL." He shouted. "IN THE DUNGEON. TROOOOOOOOOLLLL." He stopped in front of the staff table. "I thought you aught to know." His legs buckled out from under him and he collapsed. There was a silence, then the entire hall erupted. All around, people were scrambling for cover, tripping, pushing, running.

"SILENCE." Dumbledore's voice made a hush fall over the hall. "Prefects. Take your students back to your houses."

They all lined up and began following Percy out of the hall. Fred and George kept looking over their shoulders.

"Guys, the troll's not going to be stupid enough to attack all of us at once." Alicia said, "right?" She looked over at Angelina who shrugged.

"I don't see Ron anywhere." George hissed.

"Mum will kill us if he gets attacked by a troll." Fred agreed. "If we can get back to the dormitory we can check the ma-"

"It might be too late." George cut him off. "I memorized enough of the secret passages, all we need is a distraction." They turned to Katie.

"Oh no."

"Oh yes." Fred growled. "Our brother is missing. Create a diversion, second year"

Katie closed her eyes. "You owe me so big." She muttered, before scrunching up her face. "Oh my god, I can't do this, I want to go home." She shouted, stopped in the middle of the stairs.

"What's going on up there?" One of the Ravenclaw prefects said.

"I just...I don't want to die.' Katie said, covering her face and pretend to sob. "We shouldn't have left the hall we're sitting ducks here." She glared out of the side of her hands at George and Fred. They backed away as Percy came to check what was happening.

"Miss Bell." He said. "We really must go-"

"PERCY." Katie flung her arms around Percy and sobbed into the front of his robes. "Can you protect me? You're a prefect, the troll wouldn't eat a prefect right?"

"Um." Percy seemed frazzled, unsure what to do with the hysterical girl. Alicia stayed next to her with Fred, trying to calm her down while Angelina and George slipped away.

"So what's the plan now?" She asked.

"We look for Ron." George said.

"And what about the troll?" She asked.

"We don't go into the dungeon." George shrugged.

"Oh what a great plan." She shook her head. George grabbed her around the waist and pulled her behind a tapestry.

"Peeves" He said. Sure enough; the poltergeist cackled by, singing one of his annoying songs.

"Halloween night, what a fright, children on the troll's menu tonight."

"Urgh." Angelina muttered.

"I think he might be enjoying this." George agreed.

There was a loud grunting noise from outside. Angelina stuck her head out of the tapestry and quickly pulled it back in. "We can't go out there."

"Why?" George said. "My brother's out there." He tried to make for the door, but Angelina blocked him.

"Yes but the troll is directly outside." She said. It was large, gray, smelly. It shuffled along the hall, letting out low grunts and dragging a club behind it. It paused out side the tapestry where they were hiding.

"I thought it was in the dungeon." George whimpered. Angelina covered his mouth. Shutting her eyes, she waited for it to pass. The troll appeared to be sniffing the air outside the tapestry. George tapped her arm. He pointed further into the passage. They moved further in. Slowly at first, then when they were sure it could hear them, they ran.

"Where does this come out?" Angelina asked.

"Third floor, left hand side." George said.

"Isn't that the forbidden one?"

"No." George said, stopping in front of a door. "That's the right." He motioned to the door. "You want to go first?"

"Are you crazy?" Angelina hissed.

"And here I thought you were a Gryffindor." George said.

"I could have been a Ravenclaw, which is how I know that going out first is stupid."

George gulped. "How about we go out together?"

Angelina nodded. "On the count of three." She said. "One."

"Two." George said, putting his hand on the door.

"Three." George opened the door and they rushed out. Angelina stumbled and George caught her before she fell.

"What are you two doing here?" They both turned to see Professor Snape glaring down at them.

"Um..." George said, letting go of Angelina. "We were just-"

"What are you doing here?" Angelina asked. "The teachers are supposed to be in the dungeons."

"Quite." Snape said, looking at them. "2 points from Gryffindor, from each of you. Now leave."

"Professor." Angelina said.

"Do you want to make it 4, Miss Johnson."

"No sir." Angelina said. "It's just that the troll is a floor down."

Snape looked momentarily surprised; he didn't know that the troll had left the dungeon. Then he shook himself and looked down at them from his hooked nose. "Go back to your common room."

She nodded and pulled George along with her.

"Are we seriously giving up?" George asked.

"Not on your life." Angelina hissed. "something's wrong. If he didn't know the troll wasn't down there, why wasn't he in the dungeons?"

"Especially since he lives down there." George muttered. "Do you reckon he let it in?"

"Let what in, Mr. Weasley."

They both froze and turned to see professor Macgonagall, standing behind them. "What are you doing out of your common room, Miss Johnson, Mr. Weasley."

"My little brother's missing, Ma'am." George said. "We went to find him."

"McGonagall looked momentarily alarmed. "We will find him, Mr. Weasley."

"But-"

"Is anyone else from Gryffindor aiding you in your search?" She asked, cutting him off.

"No Ma'am." Angelina answered. "We snuck away when we noticed he was missing."

"We'll find him." McGonagall said. "Got back to the common room."

Angelina nodded and dragged George behind her. They made it into the Common room without further incident.

"George." Percy's angry voice hit them as soon as they came through the portrait hole. "Where were you?"

"Looking for Ron." George said. "It's not my fault that Fred and I are the only ones in this family who actually pay attention."

Percy looked over at Angelina. "Frankly, Johnson, I expected better from you."

"Ron is MISSING." George said. "I had to do something."

"There is a troll on the loose." Percy shouted back, his glasses slipped on his nose. Fred rushed over.

"Did you find him?"

"No." Angelina said. "We almost got eaten by the troll and then McGonagall and Snape caught us."

The portrait hole opened again and Ron came in followed by Harry Potter and one of the first year girls.

Percy glared at him. "What did you think you were doing?" He asked, Ron.

The youngest Weasley brother looked around before shouting. "We fought a TROLL!"

Fred and George looked at each other, before turning back to Ron. "Excellent!" George said.

"Tell us, everything." Fred agreed, throwing an arm around his shoulder and pulling him over to the food the kitchens had sent up from the feast.

"We want details." George said.

Katie and Alicia came to stay next to Angelina. "I will never understand boys." Katie said, watching them.

"Me either." Alicia and Angelina said.

* * *

Over the following weeks Oliver was in a huff because he hadn't found a new seeker. He walked around the castle, jumping out from behind random statues, tossing balls in front of random Gryffindor students, trying to find who had the sharpest eyes and the fastest reflexes. It was getting ridiculous. Angelina was running late to transfiguration when he jumped out and tossed a ball at her. It hit her in the face. Glaring at him, she picked it up and threw it at him.

"Sorry, Angelina." Oliver said. "I'm just a bit nervous. We're starting training soon and we need a Seeker."

"Well it;s your fault for starting this stupid quest to find "the chosen one"." She shook her head. "Schedule tryouts, you'll find someone." She looked pointedly at the ball that was rolling down the hall. "It's a better alternative than assaulting random students." She shook her head, walking down the hall.

About a week later Oliver, swaggered into the common room and sat in between the twins. "I found him." He announced.

Katie looked up from her charms essay. "Who?"

"Our new Seeker." Oliver grinned.

"Who is it?" Alicia asked. Oliver's expression grew even more excited and he was practically bouncing.

"Merlin's beard, Oliver." Fred rolled his eyes. "Who is it?"

"Harry Potter."

The entire team looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Oliver frowned at them. "You really had me going there." George said.

"I'm serious." Oliver said. "Harry Potter is going to be our new Seeker."

"I believe you." Angelina said. Oliver shot her a big smile. Everyone looked at her in shock. "Of course Harry Potter is our seeker..." She paused, grinning. "And the Weird Sisters are going to be playing at the Halloween feast next year."

"Potter's a first year." Katie said. "They're not allowed to try out for house teams."

"McGonagall made an exception." Oliver shrugged. Katie's face turned red and Angelina knew why. She'd had to wait a year to try out, just like the rest of them and then McGonagall just handed the position to Potter?

"That's not fair." Alicia said.

"He's really good." Oliver said.

"He better be the best bloody seeker Hogwarts has ever seen." Katie muttered.

The next day at practice they were eating their words. Potter was good. And he'd apparently never had any formal training so he could only get better.

"That quidditch cup is ours." Oliver said.

* * *

"I have a question about Quirrell." Katie said, sitting next to Angelina in the common room. They were preparing to go down to breakfast. "Specifically about his turban. Is it offensive?"

"How do you mean?"

"He's not Indian." Katie said.

"Well there are many cultures who wear turbans." Angelina said. "There are also certain religions."

"Muggle religions." Katie said.

Angelina put down her book. "You celebrate Christmas." She pointed out.

"Well..." She frowned. "I mean, I've asked around and apparently he didn't wear it before he went abroad for that year."

"And?" Angelina said. "Maybe he traveled to a place where it was common and adopted it as a habit."

"He was in Albania." Katie said. Angelina bit her lip.

"I see your point." She said slowly.

"What are you talking about?" Alicia asked as she joined them.

"Quirrell's turban." Angelina said.

"It smells funny." Alicia said.

Angelina raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?" She asked.

"He was looking at my essay and got too close." Alicia said. "It smells like wet cheese."

Lee walked over to them, holding a quill, ink and a length of parchment. Garlic. He wrote on the parchment.

"Lee." Angelina shook her head. "Just talk. This is getting ridiculous." His insistence on preserving his voice was driving everyone up the wall.

"Vampires. Garlic." He wrote, sticking out his tongue.

"Full sentences." Alicia said.

"Out loud." Angelina agreed.

Lee sighed, and put aside the parchment and ink. "Fred and George think he stuffed it full of garlic to keep away a vampire."

"It could also be that he has a terrible hair cut." Alicia said.

"Or a skin condition." Angelina added. "There are easier ways to keep away vampires."

Oliver came into the common room, furious. Conversations all over the room, grew hushed. "WHO DID IT?" He shouted. "Who lost 150 points?" He turned and looked at all the people in the room. "Who removed the edge we fought so hard for during our quidditch match?" No one said anything. Angelina frowned. Surely no one could possibly have lost 150 points in one day.

"Are you sure?" She asked. Oliver nodded.

"I just checked the hour glass." He said.

"Is that the first thing you do every morning?" Fred asked. He and George were sitting on the other side of the common room, bent over a worn piece of parchment. Percy frowned.

"If someone had lost that many points I'm sure the prefects would have been notified."

There was a collective groan. Suddenly Harry came down the stairs from the boy's dormitory. He seemed nervous some how. Then from the girl's side...Granger? Came down, with an identical look. Angelina didn't say anything, but she knew. Harry looked at them and she turned away. "Alicia, Katie." She said. "We should get to breakfast." She was angry, but she wasn't going to tell on him. People would discover it soon enough.

* * *

Angelina was walking to Potions and she was running late.

"You must be fuming." Flint drawled. He was leaning against a column, looking smug.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about." Angelina said.

"The points, Johnson." He said, "The fact that your precious boy who lived lost you 150 in one night." He laughed. "Bet you're not so happy he's one of yours now. Bet you wish he was in Hufflepuff."

Angelina stepped closer and glared up at him. "Bet you're still sore that he managed to beat your sorry excuse for a team even when you cheated and tried to curse him off his broom."

Flint flinched back. "That wasn't me." He said.

"Of course not." Angelina smiled. "You just paid someone in the stands to off him."

Flint glared. "Hey, if I beat you, it'll be fair and square, no cheating, like say...accidentally swallowing the snitch."

"He caught it." Angelina retorted.

"That's still up for debate." Flint growled. Then blinked as if he noticed how close they were.

George came into the hall, running. Seeing Angelina and Flint, he paused.

"You okay, Angie?"

"Yes." She said, moving aside. "Just passing an annoying obstacle."

When they got to Potions, George didn't take his usual seat next to his twin, but instead sat next to Angelina on the side of the table that bordered the Slytherin side of the room. Flint sat in his seat and threw amused smirks their way.

* * *

Potter had landed himself in the infirmary. Wood announced the news to an aghast team the night before their last game.

"How?" Alicia demanded.

"Ron says he was trying to take down You Know Who." Fred said.

They all looked at each other in shock. "I heard Quirrell got sacked." Katie said.

"I heard he's dead." Alicia muttered.

Angelina looked at Oliver. "What about the game?"

He shook his head.

"You're cancelling it?" She said. ]

He nodded. "Hufflepuff wins." Everyone groaned.

"This means we've lost the house cup as well." Angelina said softly.

"Well, on the bright side." Fred sighed. "At least this means Lee can begin using his voice again." He grimaced as the rest of the team glared at him. "Too soon?"

The details of Potter and his friends' adventure in the third corridor spread like wildfire throughout Hogwarts. The different versions ranged from Harry boxing Quirrell, to them battling each other on dragon back. The poor kid tried to keep his head down and avoid the thousand questions other students lobbed at him. It hadn't let up by the time they sat down for the closing feast. The hall was decorated in green and silver...again. Angelina glared at Flint as he gloated over at the Slytherin table.

"We'll get them next year Angie." George said.

Dumbledore stood...and proceeded to do something that had the entire Gryffindor table screaming and jumping out of their seats. "Is he even allowed to do that?" Alicia asked as he awarded Ron Weasley 50 points for a game of chess.

"He's headmaster." Angelina said. "So I'd say, yes."

They were tied with Slytherin. Tied. If he'd only given them, just one more point...

"And finally." Dumbledore said. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends." The entire hall waited with bated breath. People were craning up to get a better look at the high table. "And so I award ten points." Dumbledore paused, clearly enjoying the panic and hope in the hall. "To Neville Longbottom."

The Gryffindor table exploded in cheers. Angelina barely heard Dumbledore saying that they'd need to change the decorations, she was too busy throwing her arms around Alicia and jumping up and down. Everyone wanted a piece of the four first years. Hugs, declarations of love, and cheers were just some of the attention they got.

"So, we'll get them next year?" Angelina said, looking over at George. He nodded.

"And the year after that and the year after that."


	4. Fourth Year (Part One)

**AN:I've broken this year into two parts**.

* * *

Angelina yawned as the train's vibrations lulled her to sleep. She was exhausted, having stayed up the night before with excitement. That decision was catching up to her as she dropped onto Alicia's shoulder.

"I'm not a pillow, Ange." Alicia shrugged her shoulders, smirking as Angelina groaned, slumping forward. George was sitting to her other side and hesitated before saying.

"If you want, you can..." He trailed off, his ears burning as he coughed and looked away. Angelina smiled.

"Thanks George." She settled on his shoulder.

George nodded before glaring at his twin who was smirking at him from across the compartment. "Shut up." He muttered.

"Yeah, Weasley." The door slid open, revealing Marcus Flint, already changed into Slytherin robes. "Shut up."

"What do you want, Flint?" Angelina demanded, resisting the urge to punch his face. It was too early to deal with him.

"Just wanted to tell you that your Quidditch team better watch out this year." His smirk was unsettling. And did he seriously wander around the train looking for their compartment to tell them this? Did he have nothing better to do?

"Okay." She said, giving him a fake smile. "You told us..." Her expression dropped. "Now leave." She motioned to the door. Flint gave one sweeping look around the room, his eyes lingered on Angelina, her head on George's shoulder. He tensed, then he left.

"One of these days I'm going to rearrange his face." Fred muttered.

George looked at the door. "It was almost as though he knew something...which is wrong, because he knows nothing."

Angelina shifted her head, intent on taking a nice nap, but before she could the compartment door opened again. A short red headed girl, obviously a first year, came in. Her eyes were wide and darted around the compartment.

"Ginny." Fred sighed, looking indulgent. "We had a rule, you're not allowed to make contact with us until after your first detention. We have a reputation to uphold." Angelina looked at her with interest. So this was the Weasley sister. She could see the resemblance. In fact, the twins looked more like her than their younger brother.

George frowned. "What's wrong?" He asked, moving Angelina off his shoulder so he could stand to go to his sister.

"Ron and Harry Potter." Ginny said. "I can't find them anywhere on the train and...and their friend Hermione hasn't seen them and... I know mum thought he and Harry got on the train without saying anything but I don't know where they are and..." She was bubbling, tears rolling down her cheeks.

George pulled her into a hug, shushing her. "We'll look for them." He said as Fred got up with Lee hot on his heels. Angelina got up as well with Katie and Alicia behind her.

"We'll look that way." She said, pointing towards the engine. "You guys go towards the caboose." Fred nodded. He, Alicia, and Lee took off. George followed after getting assurances from Ginny that she'd stay in the compartment.

The first three compartments didn't have anything. No one had seen either of the boys on the train or the platform. Angelina was starting to get worried that this wasn't just a stupid prank. She shook her head and pointed to the next compartment they were about to knock when

"Harry Potter can't even go 2 seconds into term without everyone talking about him." Angelina stopped and listened. The voice belonged to that blond rat faced second year, Malfoy. "I mean, how attention seeking to you have to be to not board the train?"

Angelina motioned for Katie and George to continue without her and opened the door. Malfoy was sitting with his two goons. They stood up, cracking their knuckles.

"This is ours." Malfoy said. "Leave."

"Not until you tell us how you know that Harry's missing." Angelina said, glaring at...Lobster and Boyle? Whatever his lackeys' names were.

"It's all over the train, Johnson." Malfoy smirked. Though his thugs had gotten up, he was sitting, cool as a cucumber. Her wand hand twitched. He was so smug behind his protection.

Angelina tilted her head. She couldn't win a fight with them, but...She whipped out her wand, pointing it at the them. "How about you tell me everything you know." She growled. "And I don't decide to use this time to practice all the spells I've learned at my 3 years at Hogwarts." She smirked. "That's two more years than you."

The three of them hesitated. "I didn't see him get on the train." Malfoy blurted. "I was looking for him...him and his friend Weasley. They caused an embarrassing fight between my father and Weasley's at Flourish and Blotts." He glared. "I wanted to teach him a lesson. But he didn't come on the train...They weren't even on the platform."

Angelina lowered her wand. "Some people might find it weird that you pay so much attention to where Harry Potter is, Malfoy." She said, before backing out of the compartment.

Alicia came up to her. "Hey, Lee wanted me to ask-" George ran up to them, out of breath.

"We looked in every compartment, every bathroom at the front of the train, no one's seen them." He was worried. "Did you find anything?"

Alicia shook her head. "We haven't checked all the-"

"Why the bloody hell not?" George yelled, pushing past her. Alicia and Katie looked at each other. Angelina sighed.

"Go back to the compartment." She told them, giving them bracing smile. "I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." She found him scaring some Hufflepuff third years. Dragging him out of the compartment, she gave them a small nod before dragging him out into the corridor. "George." She said, turning him so he was facing her.

"Angie, I need to find them." His eyes were wild; he was spiraling. He tried to pull away.

"GEORGE." She said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Calm down and listen."

He jumped, taken aback by her tone. She took a deep breath. "I know I don't understand what it's like to have a sibling, but I know that, where ever Ron is, you loosing your mind isn't helping him."

He slumped, leaning back against the wall of the corridor. "You're right." He mumbled.

"Of course I am." She said, he gave her a small grimace. "Come on." She motioned to the end of the hall. "These compartments aren't going to search themselves."

She turned and began walking down the corridor, George behind her. The train lurched and she stumbled, George grabbed her and pulled her up, stopping her fall. Her stomach fluttered slightly as she looked up at him. It was then that she noticed how tall George had gotten over the summer.

"You okay, Angie?" He asked. She nodded.

"Yeah." She pulled away. "This compartment." She motioned down the hall not indicating a specific one. "We haven't looked in it."

George's eyes narrowed. Walking away from her, he shook his head. Angelina let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Focus, she told herself. George needed her help.

* * *

"A flying car?" Alicia said, watching as the majority of the house clamored around the portrait hole, welcoming Harry Potter and Ron Weasley into the common room.

"George says it's his dad's." Angelina said, folding a copy of the Daily Prophet into paper airplanes. "Is this right?" She said, holding up her attempt. Alicia shook her head, flattening the paper out.

"Fold it down center first." She instructed. Angelina nodded.

"And Muggles fly on these." She said, trying to remember everything she'd read about planes.

"Not on these." Alicia rolled her eyes. "On big ones that can cross the world."

"I know." Angelina rolled her eyes. "Honestly. How thick do you think I am?" She looked at the paper in front of her. "But this is the basic construction for the machines?"

"Still no." Alicia said, looking over at Harry and Ron being pulled into a crowd. Food had been brought up from the feast. Angelina looked over at Katie.

"Wanna be my best friend?"

"What's in it for me? Katie retorted.

"You get to be my best friend." Angelina repeated.

"Hey." Alicia said. Angelina smirked.

"That's for insulting my intelligence." She crumpled up her piece of parchment and threw it at Alicia's head. It bounced off the center of her forehead. Alicia didn't even flinch.

"They're going to keep the entire house up all night." Katie sighed.

"Ladies." Lee came over, throwing his arm over Angelina's shoulders. Across the room George looked over at her. When he saw Lee with her an inscrutable expression crossed his face and he turned to focus on his brother and Harry Potter. "What type of trouble are we planning on getting ourselves into this year?"

"You can't plan trouble, Lee." Katie rolled her eyes. "It defeats the purpose."

"You need to let it happen organically." Alicia said.

"We haven't even had one day back." Angelina said, shrugging off his arm. "Maybe we should focus on classes, getting started on the right foot..." She trailed off as the others looked at her. She sighed, "I'm putting ten sickles on Lee losing the first points for Gryffindor."

Lee nodded solemnly as Fred and George walked over. "I shall rise to the challenge," he put his hand on his heart. "Dear lady." George had the same strange look on his face. Fred arched an eyebrow before squeezing between Lee and Angelina.

"What is Lee rising to?" He asked.

"Angelina just bet ten sickles that he'd be the first to get in trouble this year."

Fred looked over at her in horror. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, Angie." George said. "Have you no faith in us at all?"

Angelina gave him a small smile. "Prove me wrong."

The party went on until Professor Mcgonagall came in at 1 am, wearing a purple bathrobe and a very angry expression. The house scrambled to their dorms. Angelina noted that George was hesitated.

"Georgie." She shouted. He jumped, looking over at her.

"I guess I earned that." He mumbled, walking over. "Listen...Can you tell Alicia I'm sorry?" He shuffled his feet. "For yelling at her?"

Angelina titled her head. "Wouldn't it be better coming from you?" She rolled her eyes as he exhaled, his ears turning red. Nudging his shoulder, she grinned. "Hey, it's okay. You were under a lot of pressure. I don't think she'll hold it against you."

George nodded. "I just..." He sighed. "Ron really freaked us out last year when he and Harry Potter went off on that adventure and I...I know I like him getting into trouble, but I just wish his version of trouble didn't put him in danger."

"You're allowed to tell him that." Angelina said.

"What, and sound like Percy?" He scoffed. "I mean, Fred and I taught him how to fly the car, I guess we should have expected that he'd use it." He shook his head. "Thanks for...you know, not letting me lose my mind earlier." He smiled. "I don't know what-"

"GEORGE" The two of them jumped, looking over at the stairs to the boy's dormitory. Percy was standing, looking annoyed. George sighed.

"Mummy's calling." He said, walking towards the stairs. "How many times do I have to tell you it's bed time Johnson?" He puffed up his chest, imitating his older brother's pompous swagger as he walked to the stairs. "Wouldn't want to incur the wrath of a prefect." He ducked around Percy, sticking out his tongue at his brother as he passed. Angelina rolled her eyes before turning and climbing the stairs to her dorm.

* * *

"Unbelievable."

Angelina and Alicia turned to glare at the back of the classroom. Fred, George, and Lee were standing there, looks of mock outrage on their faces.

"What?" Alicia said.

"Since when do you sit in the front of the classroom?" George said.

"1st year." Angelina said.

"Uh huh." George moved, sitting next to her. "You always sit in the second row." He opened his notebook and promptly began doodling. Angelina shoved his arm. "What?"

"This is not the class for your antics." She hissed. He was not going to embarrass her in front of Gilderoy Lockhart. Having a famous author for their DADA professor, especially one who'd had such real world experience battling dark elements was an honor.

George scoffed. "My antics?" He glanced at the enormous portrait of Lockhart that was looking into a mirror. "Angie, he's useless. You heard what happened in the second year class."

"He's not a teacher." Alicia said. "We all make mistakes."

"Opening a cage of Cornish pixies on a room of 12 year olds hardly qualifies as a mistake." Fred sat on Alicia's other side. "You two just think he's handsome."

"Well..." Alicia blushed.

"Unbelievable." Fred groaned, covering his face. "You're allegedly intelligent witches in training and yet..." He motioned to the painting where Lockhart was rearranging his hair. "This is what you go for."

Angelina bit her lip. She'd enjoyed his books and she hoped that they could learn from him and was it so wrong that he was charming? "Fred, if you embarrass us..."

"Threatening me, Johnson?" Fred leaned around Alicia, smirking. "Let's hear it."

"I'll tell Wood exactly what happened to his prized broom polish."

Fred humphed, looking at the front of the classroom just as Lockhart walked in.

"You're welcome class. It is good for you to be here, with me." Lockhart flashed them a blinding smile. Angelina winced, okay he did seem like an idiot. "Quick little quiz." He waved his wand, sending a stack of parchment flying through the class, one landing in front of each student. "Just to see how familiar you are with my work."

Angelina looked down at the quiz, all of the questions were about Lockhart and none of them seemed to be very practical in terms of learning anything. She glanced out of the corner of her eye as George snorted. "Hey Angie." He whispered. "How many of these do you know?"

She grit her teeth, scribbling her name across the top of her parchment.

"Bet you have his witch weekly interviews papering your walls." George wasn't done.

"I will hex you." She mumbled out of the corner of her mouth, glancing nervously at the front of the class where Lockhart was admiring himself in a mirror.

"I'm just trying to get a good grade." George shrugged. "And since you seem to be the expert here perhaps you can help me out."

She knocked her shoulder into his, shoving him. He laughed. Angelina glared at him, "George, I-"

There was the sound of a throat being cleared. Angelina's stomach sank as she looked up. Lockhart was standing over the two of them. "Oh dear." He said.

"Professor, I-" She began.

"I know you want to help your boyfriend, Ms." He plucked up the quiz from her desk. "Johnson." Snickers erupted from the class around them.

"He is not my boyfriend." Her face was burning.

"It was my fault, Professor." George spoke up. "I was teasing her and-"

"Ah, standing up for your lady." Lockhart smiled. "Gallant, my boy. Young love." He let out a sigh. "While it warms my heart that you care so deeply for each other, I can't have you being distracted." He nodded solemnly. "5 points from Gryffindor and I think I'll have..." He walked to the Slytherin side of the class room, looking thoughtful. Angelina's stomach sank as he stopped next to the empty seat next to Marcus Flint. Surely not. "How about Ms. Johnson moves here."

"No." George jumped up, glaring. "I mean..." He flushed. "I'll move." He grabbed his books, ready to move.

"Do I need to take more points from Gryffindor?" Lockhart's smile had an edge. "Come now, Ms. Johnson."

The entire room was silent, watching as she stood, grabbing her books and bag walking towards the other side of the room, her footsteps echoed in the class. Even the portrait Lockharts were looking down on her with amusement. She sat in the chair next to Flint, on the furthest part of the chair she could without falling off. She looked directly at the quiz, refusing to look at Flint or at her friends.

"Johnson-" Flint started.

"Shut up Flint." She hissed.

The class was torture. The scratch of quills, the dipping of ink wells were amplified. When the class was over, she slammed the quiz on Lockhart's desk and ran.

"Angie." George called out behind her. "Hey wait, ANGIE."

She whirled around, glaring at him. "You couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you."

"I'm-"

"Everything's a joke to you, isn't it?" She hissed. "Now I have to sit next to Marcus Flint and everyone thinks you're my boyfriend."

George stepped back. "I-"

"I don't want to hear it." She walked straight to Divination, getting there early. When George got to the class she put her bag on the seat next to her and didn't move it until Alicia sat next to her.

"Lockhart is an idiot." she declared. "A handsome one, but still."

Angelina met her eyes. They cracked up. Angelina feeling her stomach loosen, leaning back in her chair. George looked over at them hopefully. She looked away, not quite ready to forgive him just yet.

"I sense..." Professor Trelawney had arrived. She was holding out her hands in front of her, her eyes half opened. "Oh dear, tension between two hearts that pine for each other." She tilted her head. "A heart that yearns while the other spurns its attentions."

Angelina put her head on her desk as the Slytherins in the class, hooted and hollered with laughter. At least until Trelawney walked over to Flint and said. "My dear...she does not hate you that much, no need to fear...though..." She turned over his hand. "You will make a decision that will make or break whether she will want to stay with you." Flint gaped at her before jerking his palm out of his hand, looking around the room in horror. Lee and Fred were laughing. George's eye twitched and he glared at Flint.

* * *

She didn't talk to George until dinner. "Look." She said, pulling him aside. "We have Quidditch practice tomorrow and I'm rusty. Do you want to sneak out to the field and run through some drills with me?"

A peace offering. George bit his lip. "Aren't you worried that people will think I'm your boyfriend?"

Angelina rolled her eyes. "Please, Weasley, as if fake dating me isn't the highlight of your year."

The corner of George's mouth twitched. "I'll see you in the common room at 12" He said.

It was the first time she'd snuck out at night without Alicia. Mercifully, Percy didn't do his late night round of the common room.

"This way." George, pulled aside a tapestry and led her through it. Angelina looked around at the dusty passageway.

"What is this?"

"A secret passageway." George grinned. "Fred and I ...found it. It lets out right next to the kitchens. From there, it's just a short 5 minute walk outside." He arched an eyebrow. "What, did you seriously think you were the only one who could go around the castle undetected?"

"When Alicia and I sneak out we don't need secret passages to not get caught." Angelina retorted. A glint of silver glittered in front of them. She winced as she recognized the ghostly blood soaked clothes and grabbed George, shoving him around a corner and covering his mouth.

"Angie?" George mumbled against her hand.

"Bloody baron." She said, shuddering. George's eyes widened and he nodded. They waited, listening as the Baron moaned. Angelina lowered her hand from his mouth. She hated the Baron. He scared her.

"What do you think he's doing?" George asked, looking around the corner. Angelina grabbed him and pulled him back. "What?"

She shook her head.

"Are you...scared?" His brow furrowed. "Ghosts can't hurt you."

"But Peeves can." The Baron was the only one who the poltergeist deferred to, probably because the ghost was horrifying.

George snorted. Angelina smacked his chest. "Ow." He hissed.

"Shut up."

The Baron hadn't noticed them. "Heeeleeena." He moaned. Angelina shivered.

"I think..." George looked back around the corner, dodging Angelina's hands that tried to grab him. "I think he's crying."

"George, I swear, I will feed you your beater's bat if you don't-"

A ghostly sob made her teeth grate and she gripped George's robes, burying her face in his shoulder. George's hands came up, rubbing her back. "It's okay." He whispered. After a few minutes the noise stopped. George stuck his head around the corner and nodded.

"He's gone."

Angelina gulped, aware of how close they were. Pushing back, she pressed herself against the wall on the opposite side of the corridor.

"If you ever tell anyone about this George Weasley." She hissed. George smirked

"That you're afraid of ghosts?"

"Just the Baron." She said. George shook his head.

"As your boyfriend," he teased. "I'm sure that would be against the rules." He held up his hands as Angelina reached for her wand.

There was a meowing noise. The two of them turned and looked down. Mrs. Norris was looking up at them, her eyes glowing. Angelina and George shared a look of panic. "Common room." Angelina said.

"Common room." George agreed. They both turned and ran. Angelina's heart sank as they came up to the portrait and realized it was empty.

"Where?" She whirled around, looking for the Fat Lady.

"She's probably visiting her friend Violet." George suggested.

"If Filch catches us." Angelina hissed. It shouldn't be allowed for the Fat Lady to leave her post. How else would students be able to break the rules and wander the halls at night?

"Well, well well." The portrait hole opened. Fred Weasley was sitting in the entrance, looking at his fingernails. "Aren't we in a bind."

"Fred." George let out a sigh of relief and moved forward to got inside. Angelina moved to follow him.

"Ah ah ah." Fred held up a hand. George stopped, causing Angelina to bump into his back. "I am hurt..." Fred put a hand to his chest. "Pained...shocked that you would do this to me."

Angelina threw a panicked look over her shoulder. She swore she could hear Filch coming.

"...Sneak out and not invite me." Fred was saying. Why was he still talking? "You have wounded me. My heart is-"

"Fred" She cut him off, "I promise I'll buy you whatever you like from Zonko's the next time we go to Hogsmeade. Move, unless you want to land all of us in detention."

The wheezing sound of Filch's footsteps were louder, a swinging light from a lantern was reflecting off the walls. Fred gulped and moved out of the way. George let Angelina go first, shutting the portrait behind her.

"Students out of bed." Filch's voice was clear. "Ooooh I'll get them. I'll..."

Fred pressed his ear to the back of the portrait. Angelina tugged his arm. Fred shook her off. At that second a loud shout of irritation came from the outside of the portrait.

"Where is she?" Filch demanded. "If she's off drinking again. In my day, portraits had proper respect for their posts and if not, they were turned to kindling."

Angelina covered her mouth, trying to silence her laughs. At least something good had come from the Fat Lady's absence.

"Soooo." Fred said, sliding out of the portrait hole. "Whatever I want from Zonko's?" He threw an arm around her shoulder. "I have a list-"

"One item." Angelina rolled her eyes. "And-"

"What do you think you're doing out of bed?" Percy's voice pierced through the common room. He was standing on the steps to the boys dormitory, glaring at them. Angelina waved to the twins as they followed their brother back to bed.

* * *

She was yawning the next morning as they made their way towards the field. Alicia and Katie shot her concerned looks. "Where were you last night?" Alicia whispered, glancing ahead at the twins who were talking to Potter.

"I..." Angelina murmured.

"Wait." Katie's eyes widened. "You were out of bed last night?" She grinned. "Like George."

Alicia smirked. "George was out of bed?"

"Oh yeah." Katie hefted her broom higher in her grasp. "I heard Percy yelling at him this morning."

Angelina rolled her eyes as Alicia pretended to stroke an imaginary beard. "Interesting." She said.

"Not interesting." Angelina rolled her eyes. "Not..." she frowned, looking in front of her. The Slytherin team were approaching and they were wearing their practice robes.

Wood went in, demanding to know what they were doing. "I booked the field for Gryffindor today." Flint grinned, holding out a letter, claiming it was from Professor Snape. His eyes slid contemptuously over the team. Angelina gripped her broom, glaring at him.

"To train their new seeker..." Wood read over the letter from Snape. "You have a new seeker?"

From behind the larger members of the team came the Malfoy boy. He could play? She was about to ask when she noticed the brooms...and Flint confirmed her suspicions by mention how generous Malfoy's father had been. Nimbus 2001's the fastest brooms on the market. Part of her wanted to try one, the rest of her was furious. That slimy blonde rat had bought his way onto the team. She and Alicia shared a look. She had an equally disgusted look on her face. With any luck the little twerp couldn't play. Angelina rolled her eyes as he and Potter began trading insults. Potter's two friends, Granger and Weasley, walked over.

"Well at least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way on." Granger said. Angelina nodded her agreement. "They all got in on pure talent." The comment clearly got under Malfoy's skin as he turned, glaring at Granger.

"No one asked your opinion." Malfoy sneered at her. "You filthy little mudblood."

Katie gasped.

"How dare you?" Alicia said. Angelina felt cold. She'd heard of the word before. It had been something her mother had explained people shouldn't say. How evil or stupid was he that he'd just casually say that to someone? Ron pulled out his wand.

"You'll pay for that, Malfoy." He declared, pointing his wand at Malfoy. "Eat Slugs." The spell backfired, hitting Ron in the chest and pushing him back. He hit the grass. The Slytherin team was laughing. She glared at them before going with the others to see if Ron was okay. He was clutching his stomach, turning over, he threw up and a slug hit the grass. Angelina shuddered as he vomited more. George and Fred glared over at the Slytherins while trying to angle Ron's head forward so the slugs wouldn't choke him.

Potter said he'd take them to Hagrid's, pulling Weasley to his feet. He and Granger walked over to the hut. George and Fred watched them, before turning to the Slytherin team. They were laughing as they walked to the Quidditch field.

"They're sick." Alicia said, shivering.

"They're Slytherins." Fred growled. "Any surprise that they're blood supremacists?" He turned, "I'm going back to breakfast." He muttered, pausing as he looked at Alicia. "You okay?"

She shook her head. "My dad's a muggle, Fred." She murmured. "I just..." She shook her head. "Granger might be annoying, but she's a nice girl and she doesn't deserve to be called...that."

Angelina put her hand on her shoulder. Fred looked at her sadly.

"We'll kick their asses at Quidditch." He murmured. "We're playing them first."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Katie demanded. "You have no idea how it feels." She glared. "None of you." She pushed Angelina's hand off. "You're all pureblood. None of you get it." She turned and stormed off towards the castle. Katie and Angelina looked at each other.

"I've got it." Angelina said, rushing to follow her. Alicia was walking fast and she only caught up to her when they were halfway up towards Gryffindor Tower.

"I don't need to be handled, Ange." Alicia shot over her shoulder.

"I know." Angelina said.

"I don't need you feeling sorry for me." Alicia added, barreling up.

"Alicia WAIT" Angelina held up her hand, trying to grab her friend but it was too late. Alicia took another step and her leg sank up to her ankle. "Trick step." Angelina sighed, coming to stand next to her.

Alicia let out a scream of frustration. "WHO THE BLOODY HELL DESIGNED THIS PLACE?" She glared around. The portraits closest to them filled, the occupants clearly hoping to be entertained. Angelina gripped under Alicia's arm and lifted her up. Alicia's leg pulled free. She angled her face away from her, wiping her eyes. Angelina pulled her into an empty classroom. Checking for Peeves, she sat Alicia at a desk and sat across from her.

"You don't have to say anything." Angelina said. "But if you need to, I'll listen."

Alicia wiped angrily at her eyes and sniffed. Looking around, she let out a shaky breath. "You know how I told you I went to muggle school before I came to Hogwarts?"

Angelina nodded.

"Well...Muggles...they obviously don't have issues with blood purity, but..." She paused. "Well you and me. We're black. Muggles discriminate based on skin tone. I thought...I always thought Hogwarts would change things. If I could just get to wizard school, everything would be okay. Magic was safety." She wiped angrily at the fresh tears that were spilling from her cheeks. "But the same...painful things are being said. Just different words and different labels and I am still not accepted. Because I'm not pureblood. I'm half. Just like in muggle school. I..."

Angelina moved so she was sitting next to her, putting her arm around Alicia's shoulders as she covered her face and dissolved into sobs. She didn't know what to say. What Malfoy had said had been so utterly vile and she didn't know how to fix it. So she held her close, letting her friend vent her pain.

"We need to kick those Slytherins' asses." Alicia declared. "It's about more than just Quidditch now."

Angelina smirked. "It's not like those brooms are going to do anything for them. They'll make the same mistakes...only faster." Alicia gave her a watery smile. "Who knows, maybe they'll crash into the stands."

"Leave the jokes to the twins, Ange." Alicia muttered, pulling away from her.

* * *

The next day saw them back in Lockhart's class. Angelina made to sit with her Gryffindor friends.

"I think not, Ms. Johnson." Lockhart's voice cut across the noise. Everyone looked at her. "I can't have you distracted, sitting near this handsome devil." He motioned to George. His eyes bugged out of his head. Fred nudged him.

"I-" Angelina began. Lockhart motioned to the seat next to Flint. She glared, gripping her school bag as she walked over. Sitting next to Flint, she opened her notebook. Today's lesson was Lockhart talking about his encounter with a vampire. Angelina focused on her notebook, trying to ignore everything except what was happening at the front of the room.

"Johnson." Flint hissed. Angelina glanced over at him before shaking her head and looking back at her notebook. A piece of balled up parchment hit her in the head.

"Are you serious?" She hissed out of the corner of her mouth, not looking at him.

"About..." He glanced behind him before lowering his voice. "About what Malfoy said."

"I don't care about anything you-"

"I'm sorry." He interrupted. "It was..." Angelina's eyes narrowed. Was he trying to apologize? Did he seriously think that she didn't remember him laughing and walking with his teammates to the Quidditch field. Even now, he didn't want anyone to know what he was saying.

"Save your breath, Flint." She said. "We both know you don't really mean it. Focus on how badly we're going to beat you on Saturday." Flint slumped in his seat, hunching his shoulders and looking at his notebook. Angelina glanced over at her friends and saw Fred and George glaring at Flint. She gave them a smile, shaking her head. The last thing they needed was the two of them landing in detention during the game for an ill-timed prank.

* * *

Halloween was especially festive that year. Angelina laughed as Lee and the Twins tried to capture one of the bats flitting around the Great hall in a Jack o Lantern. Alicia and Katie were bewitching the goblets of different Slytherin players to move slightly whenever they reached for them. The feast passed without incident, which, considering the troll from the year before, was a marked improvement.

"I hate pumpkin juice." Katie declared. She was leaning on her friend Leanne, grinning up at the ceiling.

"You've had too much candy." Alicia said, pulling away the plate in front of her.

Katie grabbed at the retreating plate, missing and hitting a dish of mashed potatoes. "You're not my mum." She whined.

"Of course not." Alicia smiled. "Now sit up straight and eat a vegetable."

Angelina snorted, yawning. It was late, the candles were flickering down to the bottom of their wicks. She was stuffed, having eaten way too much candy and pie as well. The twins sat on either side of her.

"Angie." George said seriously. "We got you a present."

She rolled her eyes. "From anyone else, hearing that would make me happy, but you two-"

Fred, practically bouncing with excitement, pushed a Jack o Lantern with a plate covering it. She frowned at him.

"Let it out."

"Aw come on Ange" Fred smirked. "The fire's out."

"You can keep it." George said. "And think of us."

She shook her head. "I feel as though we should discuss the fact that you think you're the same as rats with wings." She pulled the Pumpkin from Fred's hands and took the plate off. The bat flew out, hitting Fred in the face. He blinked as he was covered in a slimy mix of melted wax and pumpkin seeds. He wiped off his face, glaring at his twin who was laughing at him.

George ducked behind Angelina as Fred pulled his wand out of his pocket. "You wouldn't hurt, Angie, would you?" He asked, winking as she shot him a glare over her shoulder.

"How dare you, sir." Fred said. "Use my adoration of our dear friend Angelina Monique Johnson-"

"How," Angelina held up a hand, interrupting his rant. "Do you know my middle name?" Alicia gave her a sheepish smile. Angelina's eyes narrowed.

"Use my adoration of our dear friend Angelina Monique Johnson as means of shielding yourself from my wrath." Fred continued.

Angelina moved to the left and George moved with her. "Don't drag me into the middle of this." She warned.

Before either twin could respond, Dumbledore stood, holding his hands up. "While I'm sure you are all having fun." He said. "Halloween will be over soon and then we'll all be sitting in this hall with a day old celebration." He clapped his hands. "Off to bed with you, chop chop."

There was a collective groan from all the students along with the scraping of benches. Angelina fell into step with Alicia as they reached the end of the Gryffindor table. "Expect payback." She said, putting her arm around Alicia's shoulders.

"I don't know why you're upset." George came up next to them. "It's a lovely middle name."

"French." Fred agreed. "And way better than George's." He smirked. "Isn't that right, Atticus?"

"Quite right, Maximilian." George said as they began climbing the stairs. There was a crowd of people stopped in front of them. Angelina ignored it; the moving staircases often caused crowding outside of the Great Hall, especially after an important feast like Halloween.

"Atticus, huh?" She nudged George, who shrugged.

"Ron's is-"

The noises from the front of the crowd grew louder as people began to push. Angelina almost fell onto a blonde Ravenclaw first year. George caught her and pulled her away. Professors Dumbledore and Mcgonagall walked past them, along with a few other teachers. Angelina followed, using the parting of the crowd the professors created to go to the front. George, Fred, and Alicia followed while Katie got stuck behind with Leanne.

Whatever had happened, it was upsetting people. Angelina craned her neck towards the front, trying to see, but there were too many people blocking her. She also couldn't hear what was happening. The crowd closed and she found herself pressed against strangers. Then the Prefects began ordering people back to the dormitories. She was pushed backwards, away from the hall where the teachers were gathering. She was pushed, elbowed, stepped on, but she fought back.

Then she saw it. Shining in red on the wall were the words

 _ **The Chamber of the Secrets has been Opened. Enemies of the Heir Beware.**_

She let the crowd pull her away.


	5. Fourth Year (Part Two)

"The Chamber of Secrets is a myth." Alicia whispered, hugging her knees. They were both sitting on Angelina's bed, unable to sleep. "It was just a stupid prank to scare people."

"Then explain the cat." Angelina mumbled. They both shivered. Angelina remembered her mother telling her various myths and legends when she was a child. She'd never told her about the Chamber of Secrets, probably thinking it was too scary for Angelina. The story had been in a book and her mother had shut it. Angelina could remember sneaking into the living room after her mother sent her to bed and reading it. She'd been too scared to sleep for a week.

"I'm scared." Alicia whispered. "Enemies of the heir means anyone who Salazar Slytherin didn't think was worthy of studying magic." She bit her lip. Angelina put her arm around her, unsure what to say. "I'm...I'm not a pure blood, Ange." She leaned into Angelina's hold. "What if...I end up like Mrs. Norris?"

"We won't let that happen." Angelina assured her.

"How?" Alicia shot her a dubious look.

"We and by that I mean me, Fred, George and Lee will walk everywhere with you." Angelina said. "That way, if the heir tries to get to you, they'll have to go through us first."

Alicia let out a small cough. The door to their dormitory opened and Katie walked in. She glanced at their sleeping dormmates before walking towards the end of Angelina's bed.

"I couldn't sleep." She whispered, climbing into the bed, sitting across from them. "I just-" She shook her head. "What kind of a messed up person writes something like that and...hurts a cat? And for what? So we'd get scared on Halloween?"

Angelina gave Katie a grim smile. "They'll find whoever did this, Katie." She looked over at Alicia. "Dumbledore is one of the smartest wizards of the age. If You Know Who was scared of him, why wouldn't Slytherin's monster be scared of him too?"

It was a weak consolation and they all knew it.

Angelina dropped her head onto Alicia's shoulder. Katie shivered, hugging herself. "Can I stay here tonight?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder. "It's a long way back to the third year dorms."

In response, Alicia turned towards her bed and used a summoning charm to pull it closer. After a bit of maneuvering, an arguement over who had to sleep in the middle, the three of them settled down. Each of them closed their eyes, but Angelina knew, as she stayed awake for the rest of the night, that her friends were pretending to be asleep as well.

* * *

"If the heir of Slytherin has enemies, it means he's here." Lee Jordan said as they ate breakfast the next morning.

"What?" Angelina blinked over at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Lee said. "He or she."

Angelina shared a look with Alicia who rolled her eyes. "So glad you decided to acknowledge equal rights in this particular instance." She snarled. Angelina bit back a snort; lack of sleep made Alicia cranky.

"Of course." George sat across from them, and grinned. "Girls are just as capable of committing brutal cat petrification as boys."

"More likely." Fred walked behind them and reached over Angelina's shoulder to grab one of the pieces of toast off her plate, jumping back before she could grab it. "Seeing as you're more likely to have cats." He took a bite, frowning at the toast. "No butter?"

Angelina looked over at George. "Permission to hex your brother?"

George shook his head. "My mother might have an objection." He tilted his head. "Though she likes you, so maybe she'd be okay."

"She likes me?" Angelina asked, a smile forming despite her irritation with Fred. "She hasn't met me."

George shrugged. "Percy told her you keep us in line."

"Can we get back to the issue at hand, please?" Lee said.

"Which was?" Alicia said. Lee looked around, before motioning them closer.

"The heir of Slytherin is among us." He whispered, his eyes wide. Angelina shivered despite herself. Lee was being silly.

"This isn't something to joke about." Alicia snapped.

"Tell the Slytherins that." Katie grumbled. "They've been looking mighty smug this morning."

Angelina looked over her shoulder to see Marcus Flint staring at them. The second they made eye contact, he gave her a smirking nod. She stuck her tongue out at him. Immature? Probably, but it felt good. Turning back to the others, she said. "We are going to flatten them on the Quidditch pitch on Saturday."

* * *

Angelina flew towards the goal post, ducking around Harry Potter. She had no idea what he thought he was doing, but she was intent on scoring when a bludger almost knocked her off her broom. She whirled around, almost dropping the quaffle. The bludger flew up, chasing after Potter. It was weird, but she had to recenter herself. Focusing on the game, she weaved around Flint, who was trying to take the quaffle from her. Lifting her arm, she threw the ball. It whistled through the air, sailing past the gloves of the Slytherin Keeper and into one of the goals. She punched the air, grinning at Alicia who returned it before diving after the Slytherin chasers who had regained possession of the quaffle.

Angelina was about to follow when Potter flew in front of her, a bludger close at his tails.

"WATCH IT" She shouted before flying after the Slytherin chasers. But Potter didn't listen. He flew up, almost coming near the stands, the same bludger following him. Shaking her head, she flew to the Gryffindor goal posts just as Oliver blocked a Slytherin attempt for a goal. "Wood." She said, motioning to Potter. "Something's wrong."

Oliver's eyes narrowed before looking over at Fred and George. "They'll handle it."

"But-" Angelina protested. He wasn't going to keep them playing? They needed to stop the game.

"Johnson, get back in position." He ordered as George flew up to block to the bludger.

"I got it, Angie." George shouted as he passed, heading straight for Potter.

* * *

When the game ended and Potter was carried off the field, Angelina was furious. Turning to Wood, she grabbed his arm, pulling him to the side. "What the hell, Oliver?"

"He's okay." Oliver said slowly, pulling his arm out of her grasp.

"Only because he got lucky." Angelina snapped. "You put it in his head that it was more important to win this game than to live."

Oliver had the decency to blink in pained confusion. "He didn't complain."

"He's a 12 year old boy, he's stupid." Angelina snapped. "It was your responsibility as team captain to, at the least, call a time out."

Fred threw an arm around her shoulder as he stepped between them. "Yeah, listen to her Oliver." His expression was grave. "She speaks with the wisdom of a 14 year old girl."

Angelina shoved his arm off, glaring at him. A flash went off; the Creevy boy was sill taking pictures. Sighing, Angelina grabbed her broom and went to the locker room, Katie and Alicia behind her. As they got to the locker room first, they got the showers first.

"Did you see his arm?" Katie asked as they dried off and got dressed. "It was...floppy." She wiggled her arm, mimicking the motion.

Alicia retched.

"Lockhart is a git." Angelina muttered, wrapping her braids in a towel. "If Potter had just gone to the hospital wing-"

"Do mine ears deceive me?" Fred's voice came from the outside of the shower area.

"Go away, Weasley." Katie shouted.

"Methought I heard the sound of Angelina Johnson complaining about Gilderoy Lockhart." Fred said.

"That can't be right." George chimed in. "I was sure she was planning her wedding to him...oh just yesterday."

Angelina opened the door and stuck her head out, glaring at them. "The two of you aren't funny."

George had the presence of mind to look chastened. "We're just messing with you." He said. "Potter's our friend."

"Sometimes I think our mum would trade us to adopt him." Fred agreed.

Angelina rolled her eyes. "And your solution to being worried about him was to poke fun at me?" She shook her head, pulling back and shutting the door.

"It's because we care." Fred shouted. "And we know you won't leave us."

"Come on, Angie." George said, knocking on the door. "It's how we show affection."

The others were ready and dressed. Angelina sighed. There was no use hanging out in the showers much longer. Taking a deep breath, she walked out. Fred and George were waiting there. Angelina made to pass them.

"I know this anger isn't about Potter." George said. "It's about us."

"What?" Angelina's face heated up. "Us? No, I-"

"He means the team." Fred was grinning, looking between the two of them. "You were worried that it could have been any of us waving floppy arms around because Oliver was too focused on the game." He pressed his hand to his chest. "I love that you care."

Angelina looked around. "Where's Oliver?"

"You yell shamed him into using the dormitory showers." George replied, he was looking at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

"You should be asking Potter that."

"He'll be fine." Fred said. "We're going to visit him in the hospital wing. Sneak him some snacks from the kitchens."

"You want anything?" George asked.

"I-"

"Yes!" Alicia interrupted, nudging her in the side. "Free food." She whispered to Angelina before turning back to the twins. "We would like many snacks."

Fred and George shared a look of amusement before nodding their agreement.

Alicia and Katie followed her out of the locker room. "So, Katie, I'm assuming you'll be coming to our dormitory?" Alicia asked.

"Snacks?" Katie grinned. "Undoubtedly."

* * *

"Johnson."

Angelina groaned, waving her arm towards the annoying voice. Who was making noise at this time on a Sunday?

"Johnson."

"Hex you." Angelina mumble as she pressed her face into the pillow. Someone kicked her. Lifting her head up, she blinked as she looked around. Katie and Alicia were also waking up, looking equally confused. The three of them had had another sleepover the previous night. Sharing the twins' apology snacks, they'd pushed Angelina and Alicia's beds together. Alicia had gotten the middle.

Looking around the room, Angelina's eyes feel on Leanne who was standing in front of the bed, her arms crossed. "What?"

"Rude." Leanne arched an eyebrow. "Your boyfriend is downstairs and he's freaking out. He wants to talk to you."

"Boyfriend?" Angelina rubbed her eyes. "Who...? Wait. No-" Leanne turned and walked out of the dorm. "George Weasley is not my boyfriend." She called after her. "NOT MY...she can't hear me." Stumbling out of bed, she yawned, glancing back at the bed. Katie had gone straight back to sleep, her face smoshed against Alicia's neck. Alicia, on the other hand, was painfully awake. "You want to come down and see what George wants?"

"Want? Yes." Alicia said. "Can?" She tried to pull away from Katie, but the third year tightened her grip on her, shaking her head. Alicia sighed, shrugging helplessly. Angelina shook her head. Grabbing a bathrobe, she pulled it on, going down the stairs. George was pacing in front of the stairs.

"Hey, Weasley." Angelina called out, getting his attention. He whirled around to look at her. "If it was so urgent, why didn't you try and come up the stairs to our dorm?" Her look of amusement wavered.

George bit his lip, motioning for her to come over to the side with him. "Angie..." He murmured. "Something happened last night." He swallowed. "Fred and I were out, getting more snacks from the kitchen-"

"Wait, you went out after dark?" Angelina's eyes widened.

"It wasn't exactly dark yet." George said. "But it was past curfew-" He shook his head. "That isn't the point. There was...a moment, when we were coming out of the kitchen when... we saw a shadow."

Angelina closed her eyes. "A shadow?" She couldn't believe this. He couldn't be serious. "You brought me out of bed on a Sunday morning for a shadow."

"Colin Creevey turned up petrified." George said. "McGonagall told the prefects this morning which means that Percy made sure he told me and Fred because he thinks we need correcting." He paused. "Whatever it was that went after Creevey...I think I saw it last night." He shook his head. "Or at least its shadow." He glanced at the stairs. "Anyway, I just...I thought that you should know so you can warn Alicia." He exhaled. "I know the whole heir of Slytherin thing has her worried."

Angelina didn't know what to say. It wasn't that George wasn't a thoughtful person, but she was very touched by his concern for his friend. Nodding, she tugged her bathrobe tighter around her. "Are you okay?" She asked. "You know, because of the..." She winced, "Shadow?"

George nodded, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah." He bit his lip. "Creevey's...I was pissed at him yesterday. And... there was that time Fred and I put ink on his camera eye hole so it would look like he had a black eye." He sighed. "I know its selfish, but he's a kid."

"You're also a kid." Angelina retorted.

"Yeah, but he's my sister's age." George crossed his arms. "I dunno, it makes me nervous."

Angelina put her hand on George's arm. She wanted to reassure him. Tell him that everything was going to be okay, but she couldn't. She didn't want to lie him and she was scared too. "Me too." She murmured. She glanced back at the stairs. "I um..." She cleared her throat. "I should go back up. Tell Alicia. It's better that she hears it before she has to come down and face people."

George looked at her, his face inscrutable. She cleared her throat, pulling back her hand. "You'e a good friend Angie." He murmured. "I don't know if I say that enough."

"Oh you definitely don't." Angelina agreed. George cracked a smile. "You're a good friend too." His smile widened. "Sometimes." She amended. This time George laughed. Angelina turned and walked up the stairs. She paused in the door of her dorm. Alicia hadn't managed to get out of Katie's grip. Angelina took a big breath, trying to freeze this frankly ridiculous moment, because the news she brought would make things less joyful.

"You okay, Ange?" Alicia asked.

Angelina bit her lip. "You?"

"Amazing." Alicia tapped Katie's arm. "Did you know we grew Devil's Snare in here?"

"It's news to me." Angelina sat on the edge of her bed, looking at her two friends.

"So...how was George?" Alicia said in a singsong voice.

Angelina wrung her hands. "He's...he had something to tell me." she paused. "You should wake Katie up...something...something bad happened last night."

* * *

"Dueling club." Lee sat across from her, stealing a strawberry from the top of her stack of waffles.

Angelina sighed. "One breakfast." She glared down at her plate. "That's all I ask. One breakfast where I can eat in peace."

"Come on, Angie." George said, sitting next to her and reaching out a fork. "It's going to be fun."

SMACK.

George pulled back his hand, pouting. "You let him take a strawberry."

"You tried to take a piece of waffle." Angelina retorted, waving her fork at him. "That's unforgivable." George nodded his understanding.

"So about this dueling club." He prompted. "It'll be fun."

Angelina winced. She'd already heard about the dueling club. She'd passed a group of 5th year Hufflepuffs on her way in who had been handing asking everyone passing through the door whether or not they were joining. She'd shrugged, saying she'd think about, but she wasn't sure they'd been enthused. She understood being scared, but she wasn't sure that the answer was teaching people dueling spells. "I don't know."

"Come on." Lee said. "It'll be fun. You can hex one of these two." He motioned to Fred and George. "And we all know how much you've been dying to do that."

"Plus," Fred chimed in. "There's a chance they let us fight other people which means I can give some of the Slytherins pig tails." He paused. "As in the tail of a pig. Not the hair style"

"I got it." Angelina shook her head. "I guess it'll make me feel better to know a few spells. Especially since we aren't learning anything useful in Defense against the Dark Arts."

"So you've come around to our side." Fred grinned, propping his chin on his hands. "On Lockhart being a prat."

Angelina pressed her lips together, nodding. "It doesn't help that he's still having me sit next to Flint." She tapped her fork against her plate.

"Dueling club!" Katie ran up to them and sat next to her, shaking her shoulder. "We need to join. I need to join. I wanna join. Let me join. We're going to join." She jumped up, seeing Leanne walking into the great hall. Angelina shook her head, looking back at the twins.

"For the record. I will wipe the floor with the both of you."

George and Fred shared a look, having a silent conversation before turning back to Angelina. "Count on it." They said together.

The rest of the day passed slowly. They only had Defense against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures. She grit her teeth as she took her seat next to Flint. Glancing across the room at her friends, she briefly wondered if it was possible to sneak back to her own seat.

"Planning your escape?" Flint broke into her thoughts. She glared at him. "Come on, Johnson. The silent treatment's getting old."

Angelina turned away from him and opened her book. They were going over the next chapter of Gadding with Ghouls. She'd already read it, but if she had the book open in front of her, Lockhart would be too flattered to pay her too much attention. That was her goal for Defense against the Dark Arts the rest of the year. Keep her head down and avoid gaining attention.

"Johnson."

"Shut up." She hissed through gritted teeth. She didn't want to put up with Flint anymore. She wanted to be sitting with her friends. It was beyond humiliating to have to sit on the Slytherin side of the class room. Behind them, she could hear Flint's house mates' hissed whispers mocking her. Telling Lockhart was useless, he wasn't going to listen to reason. In fact, he'd probably use it as an excuse to further make some stupid example out of her and Flint. She'd have to tell McGonagall. Resolving to meet with her after Care of Magical Creatures, she turned to Flint and gave him a smile. Flint arched an eyebrow, alarmed.

"What-"

"Just enjoying the last class I'll have to sit this close to your slimy face." She said, turning before his retort. It never came instead Flint frowned and focused on his notes. Across the room George looked at her. Meeting her eyes, he pointed at Flint before mouthing "what did you do?"

Angelina shrugged, smiling before turning back to the desk in front of her.

Care of Magical Creatures was predictably chaotic. Professor Kettleburn had thought it would be fun to investigate a Bowtruckle colony living at the edge of the forest. Unfortunately, no one had thought to warn the Bowtruckles before hand, leading to a whole troop of people groaning and limping to the hospital wing.

"So." George said, falling into step with Angelina as they walked up to the castle. "what was that in Lockhart's class today?"

"I figured out how to solve my Flint problem." She lifted her head, taking in a deep breath. It was sunny that afternoon. "I'm talking to Macgonagall. She's a head of house, and Deputy Head Mistress, which means she's got more influence than Lockhart."

"Plus, even Mr. Perfect Press isn't stupid enough to cross her." George nodded. "Good. The Gryffindor side needs you back."

Angelina shot him a knowing smirk. "Alicia's not letting you copy her notes, is she?"

"Not at all." George said. "Plus yours are so much more detailed."

Angelina stopped, watching as Lee passed them, a hand pressed to a rapidly swelling bruise over his left eye. George did the same, looking at her curiously. "I don't get it."

"What?" George cocked his head in confusion.

"You and Fred aren't stupid."

"Gee," George pressed his hand to his heart. "Your compliments know no bounds."

"I mean." Angelina rolled her eyes. "That you pretend to not care about school. You pull pranks in class, you sit in the back, you copy my notes, but...you're really smart." She shrugged. "I guess I just don't understand why you don't take this more seriously."

George looked up at the school. "Serious is boring." He said. "Have you met Percy? Plus. School isn't everything."

"That's a lie." Angelina rolled her eyes. George shook his head.

"My dad is super smart." He said softly, waving his arm in front of him. "He sees things no one else does. He's an inventor. He takes Muggle things and just-" He dropped his hands. "And my mom? Top of her class. Both of them are brilliant. But that doesn't mean that the ministry respects ether of them. They're just poor blood traitors." He looked up a the school. "Charlie's off being an amazing dragon trainer, Bill's a curse breaker, and Percy..." he scrunched his nose. "Don't tell him I told you this, but he's probably going to be Minister of Magic one day." He rolled his eyes. "He's still a git, but he's a smart one." He glanced around them, but everyone was too busy nursing their pain from the class to pain real attention to them. "So, yeah Fred and I are smart, but we're going to do what makes us happy. We're not going to worry about school, because being brilliant isn't going to change how other people think about us." He paused, rubbing the back of his neck. "Plus, I kinda like how your forehead does that crinkly thing in the middle when you catch me looking at your notes."

He turned and ran up towards the castle. Angelina shook her head, trying to dispel the heat in her cheeks.

"Crinkly?" She shouted as she followed him. "What do you mean crinkly?"

She made it to the castle, just in time to see George duck behind a tapestry. Shaking her head, she looked at the staircases, planning the fastest route to the Transfiguration classroom. She could chase George through secret passageways later. Walking up the stairs, she planned what she was going to say.

"Ms. Johnson." A voice called out from behind her. She grimaced. Lockhart. The last person she wanted to see right now. Turning, she looked down as the professor jaunted up the stairs to meet her. "Well, I don't enjoy being taken to task by my colleagues, but from what I understand, you weren't the instigator, so I won't hold it against you."

"I'm sorry?" Angelina's brow furrowed. Lockhart stopped on the same step, smiling as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"Professor Snape came to complain that apparently one of his students expressed distaste in my seating assignments." Lockhart said. "So starting tomorrow, you and Mr. Flint will no longer be seated together and you may choose where to sit."

Angelina blinked, unsure how to process what she'd heard. "Oh." Lockhart was waiting, clearly expecting a thank you. She wasn't going to give it to him. She wasn't going to thank him for solving a problem he'd created in the first place. She nodded. "Good to know." She gave him a forced smile. "I will see you next class."

"I was hoping I'd see you at dueling club." He said. Angelina didn't even bother hiding her look of shock. "I can't have one of my best students missing out on the fun." Clapping her on the shoulder, he walked up the stairs. Angelina rolled her shoulders. The only person who could have complained to Snape was Flint. Had he actually done something nice? Shaking her head, she continued up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower. She needed to warn the others who'd be running Dueling Club.

* * *

"Parselmouth." Katie said, following Angelina and Alicia into their dormitory. "Potter's a parselmouth."

"What's the big deal?" Alicia whispered, glancing the room at their sleeping dormmates.

"Slytherin was a parselmouth." Angelina explained. "It's extremely rare." They all stood, looking grimly at each other in the darkness of the dorm. Angelina knew what they were thinking; Potter being a parselmouth would have been weird enough, but finding out about it while the Chamber of Secrets was open was strange. "He can't be the Heir of Slytherin." Angelina finally broke the silence. "We know Potter. He's a bit weird, but he's not evil, plus his best friend's a muggle born."

"And he was raised by muggles." Alicia said slowly. Another silence fell. Katie shook her head.

"We can be considering this."

"You're right." Angelina said. "We're tired." She and Alicia shared a look before turning to look at Katie. The third year ignored them, walking over to Alicia's dresser, pulling out a pair of pajamas. Looking over at them, she arched an eyebrow.

"What?"

"When did she put clothes in our dorm?" Alicia turned back to Angelina.

"It's your dresser." Angelina pointed out. "You're the one who didn't notice."

Katie put her hands on her hips. "I'm standing right here."

"We know." Alicia and Angelina said.

"You're always here." Angelina smirked.

"Did you forget you have your own dorm?" Alicia looked back at Angelina. "I think she forgot she has her own dorm."

Katie bit her lip. "You guys aren't funny."

"No, what isn't funny is having to push our beds together every other night." Angelina pointed.

"And the fact that you steal all the blankets." Alicia added.

"And kick." Angelina chimed in. Katie frowned and turned, walking to the door.

"And snore." Alicia called after her. She and Angelina shared a small laugh. The two of them looked at the door.

"She does know we're joking...right?" Alicia's expression turned worried. Angelina winced.

"Maybe we-"

"I'll go." Alicia said. She walked to the door. Angelina sighed, turning to the beds, waving their wand to pull the beds together.

* * *

Angelina walked into the common room, not meeting anyone's eyes. Dropping her bag into the armchair closest to the window, she sighed, throwing herself down. Looking up at the ceiling, she loosened her uniform tie, too stressed to get her robe off.

The portrait hole opened. Angelina glanced out of the corner of her eyes. Alicia stumbled into the room. Straightening her robes, she looked around until she found Angelina. Making a beeline for the armchair across from her, she crossed the room.

She halted, coming to a lurching stop next to Angelina's chair. Angelina couldn't meet her eyes. They both stared at the carpet, neither wanted to be the first to talk. Alicia had to know.

"You heard." Angelina croaked. Alicia nodded.

"A ghost." She murmured, finally moving and sinking into the seat across from her. "I just...how do you hurt someone that's already dead?" She winced.

Angelina had been planning on spending the afternoon in the library when she'd heard. Justin Finch Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick. Two at once. She'd been so scared she'd practically run to the tower. Alicia looked worse for wear as well. Her eyes were red rimmed and she sniffed as she wiped at her face.

"I uh..." She cleared her throat. "I got stuck in the trick step on the way up here." She shook her head. "I thought I was going to be petrified and I lost it. Some Hufflepuff 7th year had to pull me out. And then she and I cried together." She shook her head. "This is a bloody school. We should be learning, not worrying that some monster is going to swoop in and turn us to stone."

A group of first years walked into the common room at that moment. They were packed together, unwilling to move too far away from each other. Angelina didn't blame them; they were Colin Creevey's classmates after all. Alicia probably didn't want an audience if they continued this conversation and the more people that came into the common room, the more the gloom of the room would increase. Standing, she grabbed her bag. "Come on." She murmured, jerking her head to the stairs.

"Aren't you going to wait for the twins or Lee?" Alicia asked. Angelina shook her head.

"Nah. You're my best friend." She said. "I have some sugar quills in my trunk from our last trip to Hogsmeade that I managed to hide from Katie. Wanna share?"

Alicia seemed to hesitate before throwing her arms around Angelina and squeezing her. "I'm sorry." She murmured. "I'm so scared."

"Me too." Angelina admitted, hugging Alicia back. "Me too."

* * *

 **Notes:**

Sorry for the wait between updates. I know I was originally going to have 2 parts to the fourth year, but I'm going to have a part 3.


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